Denver — Almost every community college has a project to improve remedial education. But most colleges struggle with expanding those programs to any meaningful level — from, say, 100 students to 2,000. The primary challenge: money.

Well, not so, says Robert Johnstone, vice president for instruction and institutional research at Foothill College, in California. Programs to improve remedial education often pay for themselves, Mr. Johnstone told college officials here in a session on the first day of the annual conference of the League for Innovation in the Community College.

Mr. Johnstone helped debunk the cost argument as part of a systemwide project to improve remedial education in California’s community colleges. That project found that the additional costs of enhanced remedial-education programs were generally covered by the resulting increase in student retention and, ultimately, enrollment.

For example, an intensive mathematics program at De Anza College serves 75 students a year and costs $81,990. But over a three-year period, the students in that program go on to complete 36 percent more contact hours than remedial students who aren’t in the program. That means higher enrollment and more money from the State of California — $213,357 more.

That money isn’t all profit, Mr. Johnstone said. But even so, it’s enough to cover the additional cost of the intensive math program. Which just goes to show, he said, that effective programs can be expanded without breaking the bank. —Elyse Ashburn