Community Colleges Push to Offer 4-Year Degrees, But Don't Hold Your Breath Waiting for It to Happen

Under the 1960 Master Plan, California community colleges were reorganized and given an explicit mission of AA and vocational degrees plus providing the first 2 years of college. Students who could not gain admission to UC or CSU could enter a community college and, if successful in completing the two year program, transfer to a UC or CSU campus. As is well known, the Master Plan has been eroding, certainly on tuition. There has also been some erosion of the notion that PhDs would be offered only at UC.

There has been a push by some community colleges to expand into offering four year degrees. It might seem paradoxical that this push would occur at a time of a major budget squeeze. Community colleges fall under the K-14 protections of Prop 98, but they have been the weak sister under that umbrella compared with K-12. And Prop 98, during the current budget crisis, has not prevented significant cuts. Some readers may recall an unsuccessful push by community colleges for a ballot proposition a few years back that would have carved out separate protections for them. (Voters rejected the proposition.)

Nonetheless, there were legislative hearings on the 4-year issue in the state assembly. You can watch the hearings at http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewVideo/2094

The 4-year proposal is being pushed under the rationale that community colleges could provide specialized technical bachelors degrees in fields such as hospitality management and nursing. Not surprisingly, the budget crisis was mentioned at the hearing. There would have to be a change in state law for community colleges to offer 4-year degrees. It seems unlikely that the state is going to embark on this course any time soon. And it should be noted that witnesses from the state umbrella organization for community colleges expressed reticence about the concept due to budgetary reasons.