BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 661
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 661 (Block)
As Amended April 28, 2011
Majority Vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 6-0
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|Ayes:|Block, Achadjian, | | |
| |Galgiani, Lara, Miller, | | |
| |Portantino | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Authorizes the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College
District (GCCCD) and the San Mateo Community College District
(SMCCD) to offer baccalaureate degrees, as specified.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes various findings and declarations, including that
allowing California Community Colleges (CCC) to provide
baccalaureate degrees can help California meet its future
workforce education needs.
2)Authorizes GCCCD and SMCCD to establish a baccalaureate degree
pilot program (Pilot), provides that the Pilot will expire
eight years after the first class of students begin the
program, and requires the Pilot to meet specified eligibility
requirements, including: the district must seek
accreditation, maintain the primary CCC mission, offer only
one baccalaureate per campus in an area of identified need,
and maintain records and reporting for the Pilot and enrolled
students.
3)Authorizes the GCCCD and SMCCD governing boards to charge
Pilot students a fee, in an amount determined by the governing
board that covers the additional costs imposed by providing
the Pilot, for enrollment in courses that are not transfer
core curriculum courses. Provides that the fees shall be
deposited in the designated fund of the district in accordance
with the CCC Budget and Accounting Manual and expended for the
Pilot.
4)Requires GCCCD and SMCCD to report to the Legislature within
one year prior to the expiration of the Pilots on the success
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of the Pilots through an evaluation of completion and
retention rates, funding mechanisms and fee amounts, impacts
on enrollment at other public institutions, and graduate
placement rates.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes CCC, with the primary mission to offer academic
and vocational instruction at the lower division level for
both younger and older students, including those persons
returning to school and not beyond the second year of college.
2)Establishes the CCC Baccalaureate Partnership Program, formed
for the purpose of offering baccalaureate degree programs on
participating CCC campuses.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill : The author notes that tens of thousands
of students are being turned away from the University of
California (UC) and California State University (CSU) campuses,
and yet according to the Public Policy Institute of California,
this state needs to produce almost one million more college
educated workers by 2025 in order to remain economically
competitive. The author argues that allowing a select number of
CCCs to offer baccalaureate degrees could be one way to help
improve retention and graduation rates while providing
place-bound students an opportunity to get a high-quality
education close to home. On March 1, 2011, the Assembly Higher
Education Committee conducted an oversight hearing to examine
the issues surrounding a CCC baccalaureate degree program. In
an effort to increase the percentage of degree holders and
provide access to a population of students who may not otherwise
attend four-year universities, several states have taken steps
to allow their community colleges to award specialized
baccalaureate degrees.
The arguments in favor of the community college baccalaureate
degree are compelling:
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1)Increased access to the baccalaureate for place-bound, adult
workers and first-generation college students.
2)Greater affordability for students as in most states the cost
of a community college baccalaureate is lower than tuition at
four-year institutions. Assembly Higher Education committee
staff notes that this bill does not require the student fee
amount to be lower than that of CSU or UC but instead requires
the fee amount to cover the cost of the Pilot.
3)Ability to meet local workforce demands as community colleges
work with local employers and develop degree and certificate
programs that respond to specified workforce needs. Assembly
Higher Education committee staff notes that this bill would
require Pilot degrees to be offered in areas of identified
workforce need.
4)Previously established joint accreditation process whereby the
Western Association of Schools and Colleges accrediting
commission, the Accrediting Commission for Community and
Junior Colleges (ACCJC) provides for joint accreditation of
two-year degree granting institutions currently accredited by
ACCJC that wish to offer a single baccalaureate degree while
retaining their core mission as a two-year-degree-granting
institution. Assembly Higher Education committee staff notes
this bill would authorize only one baccalaureate degree
offering at the Pilot districts.
Issues to consider :
1)Pilot districts : Pilot programs are designed to test and
evaluate how a program will work in a variety of circumstances
before implementation on a statewide basis. Thus, pilots are
usually selected by the CCC Chancellor in a competitive
process that seeks to ensure demographic and geographic
diversity. This bill specifies the CCC districts that will
serve as the Pilots without the benefit of a competitive
process or evaluation of the diversity of the Pilots.
2)Mission expansion: This bill represents a significant
expansion of the CCC mission with an unknown impact on the
ability of CCC to complete its existing missions. As reported
by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy, of
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the 60% of CCC students seeking a degree or certificate, only
about one-fourth succeed in transferring to a university
and/or earning an associate's degree or certificate within six
years. In the 2009-10 Budget Act, the Legislature and
Administration asked CCC to focus its resources on three key
priorities: career technical education, basic skills, and
transfer.
3)Potentially high implementation costs and fee amounts : In
order to add upper division coursework, CCCs would need to
increase faculty and upgrade laboratories and libraries. The
author has indicated intent for districts to partner with
local businesses to fund program start-up costs.
Additionally, this bill does not establish a fee level for the
Pilot programs, but instead authorizes CCCs to establish
student fee levels that cover the cost of the program.
4)Other alternatives : Partnerships between a CCC and a CSU
campus have been established to deliver upper-division
instruction at community sites away from the main CSU campus.
The CCC Baccalaureate Partnership Program, formed for the
purpose of offering baccalaureate degree programs on
participating CCC campuses, authorizes the CCC Chancellor's
Office to award annually two grants, not to exceed $50,000
each, to a collaborative, consisting of at least one CCC and
at least one baccalaureate-degree granting institution, formed
for the purpose of offering a baccalaureate degree program at
participating CCCs. Several CCCs partner with both public and
private universities to provide baccalaureate degrees.
Operating the baccalaureate programs, including the hiring of
faculty, counseling students, overseeing curricula and
registering students is the responsibility of each university
partner exclusively, however the courses are offered on the
CCC campus.
Prior efforts : AB 2400 (Block) of 2010, would have authorized
three specified CCC districts to offer baccalaureate degrees as
part of a pilot program and was held in the Assembly Higher
Education Committee at the request of the author. AB 1455
(Hill) of 2009, subsequently amended to address public safety
issues, as introduced would have required the CCC Board of
Governors to establish a pilot program to allow selected CCC
districts to offer baccalaureate degrees. AB 1280 (Maze),
Chapter 515, Statutes of 2005, established the CCC Baccalaureate
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Partnership Program. AB 1932 (Maze), of 2004, expressed
legislative intent to authorize CCCs to award bachelor's degrees
and was held without recommendation in the Assembly Higher
Education Committee. The California Performance Review issued
by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005 recommended that the Governor
work with the Legislature to create a pilot program allowing
approved CCCs to offer baccalaureate degrees. Under the pilot
program, individual community colleges interested in offering a
baccalaureate degree would submit a proposal for approval by the
Secretary of Education or his or her successor.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
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