Need for a New Master Plan - Once Again - Part 3

UC President Clark Kerr hands
Master Plan to Gov. Pat Brown

From time to time, this blog has pointed out the need for a new Master Plan for Higher Ed - the old one which everyone pays homage to dates back to 1960 and expired in 1975 - to deal with who does what among the three segments of public high education.* Otherwise, we will continue to get ad hoc policies made by the legislature without the larger view in mind.

From CalMatters: ...Two bills passed by the Legislature last week focus on... nurses with bachelor’s degrees. Both target a growing demand for nurses to possess bachelor’s degrees by allowing some community colleges to issue them. Presently the colleges only provide associate degrees — generally the minimum degree needed to be a registered nurse.

The bills are the latest developments in the state’s ongoing quest to tweak the educational offerings of colleges and universities to address cultural and workforce needs, from requiring ethnic studies courses to permitting colleges and universities to issue degrees they haven’t before. But the bills also underscore the complexity of both identifying a labor force problem — a nursing shortage — and the role that community colleges and universities play in graduating skilled workers.

One is Senate Bill 895 by Sen. Richard Roth, a Democrat from Riverside.** The other is Assembly Bill 2104 by Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Democrat from Merced.***

The California State University opposes both bills, viewing them as undermining a promise lawmakers made two years ago that community colleges wouldn’t issue bachelor’s degrees that duplicate existing Cal State programs, among other worries. Private colleges oppose the bills, as well. The University of California doesn’t officially oppose the bills but raised similar concerns.  

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/09/nursing-shortage/.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/03/need-for-new-master-plan-once-again.html.

**https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB895. This bill would require the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to develop a Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing Pilot Program that authorizes select community college districts to offer a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. The bill would limit the pilot program to 10 community college districts statewide and would require the chancellor’s office to identify and select eligible community college districts based on specified criteria.

***https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB2104/2023. This bill would require the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to develop a Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing Pilot Program that authorizes select community college districts to offer a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. The bill would limit the pilot program to 10 community college districts statewide and would require the chancellor to identify eligible community college districts based on specified criteria.