The response to low graduation rates can't be to further dumb down the degree. Every functioning adult should understand algebra. I'd actually argue that trigonometry should also be included in this list, but that's probably only useful for adults who build things, and sadly, not very many adults do build things these days.

Instead of removing Algebra, we need to consider better ways to teach this subject to people who do not have a lot of the fundamentals in place already. One of the biggest problems with College Algebra is that it assumes a certain level of math literacy that isn't universal. Algebra simply isn't that hard of a subject to master, but it is something that requires a different sort of teaching strategy than is used at the average community college.

Give me a motivated adult who understands basic arithmetic, and I can help him or her master algebra in six to eight weeks. We can go from zero to FOIL, and quadratic to partial fraction decomposition in that amount of time. The key is to listen and to instill a level of confidence as early as possible in this process. Many adults consider math to be "hard" -- not from the perspective of it actually being hard, which it is -- but from the perspective of "this is too hard for me to do, because I'm not a math person." Break this mental block, and anyone can do algebra.