[sumthinprofound]

from the article > Walmart last year dropped the dollar-per-day fee employees paid to participate in the company’s subsidized university degree program, a move that boosted participation by 44%

Apparently it had a significant difference.

[MichaelBurge]

The OP comment that you are attempting to disagree with says "Participation might have increased but I wonder if completion rates decreased." and you are citing participation using the exact same quote he did as if it was new information.

[gruez]

Right, but the GP was talking about completion rates. People might have been enticed into attending those programs (it's free, after all), but actually following it through is whole different matter.

[sumthinprofound]

Agreed. I was considering attendance, but completion would be a much different (and meaningful) metric.