Letter to the Editor of the Denver Post - Adam Lowrance

Hey all. So I was perusing the Denver Post and I saw an article (http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14451770) addressing the duplication of academic programs in Colorado's colleges and universities. As I read it, I couldn't help but think of remedial education and how it seems like a duplication of services since every community college in the state offers such pedagogy.
Before moving on to my letter of the editor, I must say my original letter was 458 words. After writing the letter is when I (foolishly) decided to look up the submission criteria. The maximum length is 150 words. Needless to say, paring down to 150(ish) was a challenge. Here is the post:

Allison Sherry of the Denver Post recently published an article addressing redundancy in Colorado’s higher education programs. Alison reported that Colorado colleges and universities are spending scarce resources to duplicate programs in competition for students. Of what benefit are competing programs to the state? In this same vein, should these institutions provide remedial services already offered by community colleges?
Last year, more than $3.7 billion was spent on remedial education in the US. Julie Davis Bell, education-program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures said, remedial education “is such a drain on state dollars”…“the number is so awful in terms of students going into remedial ed who don’t graduate.” In Allison Sherry’s article, David Longanecker, president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education said, “An efficient system isn’t one that has a lot of duplications.” I ask, with Colorado ranked 48th in funding for higher education, is our remedial education system operating efficiently?