Community college officials are now opposing bills to expand access to bachelor’s degrees after California lawmakers made last-minute changes to the legislation that officials say will create more barriers to offering four-year degrees to community college students.
After changes to the law, California State University no longer opposed the effort. But community college leaders took issue with the changes made during the final days of the legislative session, which ended this week, and dropped their support.
News of community college opposition was first reported by CalMatters.
The CSU and California Community Colleges are at odds this year over efforts to expand baccalaureate programs on community college campuses. Earlier this week, the legislature passed Senate Bill 960 and Assembly Bill 2694, a set of two bills that the authors say would make it easier for community colleges to create bachelor’s degrees.
The CSU has previously argued that these baccalaureate programs on community college campuses are duplicative, which could siphon students away from their universities. Community colleges have advocated for these programs as a way to serve low-income students who cannot immediately access bachelor’s degree programs from where they live.
California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian expressed opposition to changes made to a bill by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento, according to a letter sent Aug. 29, CalMatters reported..
“These new requirements and restrictions could leave California with a community college baccalaureate framework that creates more barriers than we have today,” Christian wrote to lawmakers.
Obstacles cited by Christian included program caps, restrictions on online programs, and a five-year ban on resubmitting programs that were initially rejected.
Given the years-long divisive fight between the two higher education systems over this issue, Cabaldon said the bill reflects the best compromise with broad legislative support and addresses concerns raised by the governor. He noted that the performance-based tiers are designed to ensure that community colleges focus on their core missions before taking on new programs.
Cabaldon said including the state Secretary of Labor in the approval process for new bachelor’s degrees will ensure program expansion is evidence-based, which will help avoid conflicts with CSU. The five-year waiting period between submitting program applications is intended to ensure that the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency is not overwhelmed by reviewing program proposals, he said.
“We want to send a clear signal to colleges that they need to get their house in order as they prepare their workforce records for review by the secretary,” Cabaldon said.
The Community College League of California (CCLC), an advocacy group, also opposed the changes because they were introduced late in the session. The group said the last-minute changes did not allow enough time to understand the “potential impacts of the revised language,” the group said in a statement.
“The legislation places more restrictive caps on the degrees that districts can offer. Additionally, the proposed tier system creates competitive ranking among community college districts, rather than evaluating offered degree programs based on individual merit, regional demand and demonstrated workforce need,” the release said.
In an earlier statement, CSU called the bill “an appropriate balance between expanding access where it is needed, meeting workforce demand, and preserving the critical coordination that has long been a strength of our state.”
This story was originally published by EdSource.
