a slightly better chance to avoid debt servitude

The language is telling: a chance to succeed, more opportunity (no guarantees, mind you). These ways of speaking so prevalent in education issues are so awkward at first until you grasp that they are meant to reassure those from the upper reaches that redistribution (from up to down) is not underway (though redistribution from down to up continues).

A Better Chance to Succeed - NYTimes.com: 

"What makes this especially disturbing is the fact that remedial courses are often a dead end. According to federal statistics, less than a quarter of students who start out there go on to earn two-year degrees or transfer to four-year colleges. This is sometimes because of poor skills, but frustration likely plays a significant role."

Especially disturbing? There is no malpractice allowed for educational abuse cases like these. While community college salaries escalate, many families have made choices that mean life changes to pay for services that would merit a criminal investigation. Just as the pages are filled with financial crimes that go unpunished, so in the industrial-education complex, many crimes are let go, the effects of which alter lives. And colleges are remediating what schools themselves have created and compelled students to endure without any voice in the process.

Notice there is no statement of the total amount of money made by colleges off remediation -- the way every news story about dropouts is accompanied by the dollar amount of their lost earnings.