It soon could become much easier for California community colleges to create new bachelor’s degree programs.
The state’s community colleges, which primarily offer certificates and two-year associate degrees, are permitted to create bachelor’s degrees that fill workforce needs, but existing law allows them to do so only if they don’t duplicate what’s offered at California’s four-year universities.
Debate over what is and isn’t duplication has created an ongoing turf war between the state’s two largest higher education systems, with California State University campuses often objecting to new community college degrees, claiming duplication of their own programs. Amid those objections, final approvals of several degree offerings have been delayed for years.
Now, California lawmakers are weighing legislation to clarify — and significantly restrict — when the state’s four-year universities can protest new community college bachelor’s degree programs.
Two separate bills, Senate Bill 960 and Assembly Bill 2694, would prohibit four-year campuses from bringing objections if they aren’t located in the same geographic area as the community college proposing the degree. Both bills are opposed by CSU.
The change would address a major point of frustration for community colleges, which have argued that location should be a relevant factor when determining whether a program is duplicative. In some cases, degrees have been blocked because of objections from CSU campuses located hundreds of miles away from the community college proposing the new program.
Supporters say the legislation would align California with other states, such as Washington and Florida, where duplication rules are much less strict for new community college bachelor’s degrees. Community college officials say many of their students are place bound, meaning they can’t leave their home area to attend college.
“The north star here is providing more access to bachelor’s degree programs to students who don’t have access to many of our CSUs up and down the state,” said Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-San Diego.
Alvarez is the author of AB 2694. SB 960 is authored by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento.
Both proposals would also open the door to new community college bachelor’s degrees even if they are similar to what’s offered at a local CSU. The bills would prohibit colleges from claiming duplication if there is a workforce need not being filled by the four-year university’s program.
Alvarez’s bill is endorsed by dozens of community college districts and campuses. That includes some of the largest districts in the state, such as the San Diego Community College District, and some of the state’s smallest and most remote colleges, including College of the Siskiyous.
“We’re trying to navigate this process, and there has not always been a clear and consistent definition of what constitutes duplication. We just want some clear boundaries,” said Carole Goldsmith, chancellor of the State Center Community College District, which includes four colleges in the San Joaquin Valley.
CSU officials were not made available for an interview for this story. In a letter to lawmakers, the system argued that the state should focus on improving transfer pathways between community colleges and CSU campuses rather than expanding community college bachelor’s degrees.
“Existing pathways, particularly the Associate Degree for Transfer and the Transfer Success Pathway, are the most affordable, proven and scalable route to a bachelor’s degree, offering a clear two-year community college to two-year CSU pathway with guaranteed admission,” wrote Christopher Morales, a senior legislative advocate at CSU.
Alvarez’s bill cleared the Assembly last month and is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Education Committee on July 1. SB 960 similarly sailed through the Senate and will be heard on Tuesday in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
It is likely that, at some point, the two bills will merge.
The biggest question is whether Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign whichever bill emerges from the Legislature. Newsom has previously vetoed other bills to expand community college bachelor’s degree programs. Last year, he vetoed a bill, AB 1400, that would have authorized 10 community college districts to create bachelor’s degrees in nursing.
In his veto message, Newsom encouraged community colleges to “focus on implementing” degrees that existing law already permits.
AB 927, signed into law in 2021, allows community colleges to create up to 30 new bachelor’s degrees annually, provided they don’t duplicate what’s offered at CSU, the University of California or the state’s private four-year colleges.
Statewide, more than 60 community college bachelor’s degree programs have been created for majors such as respiratory care, cyberdefense and water resource management.
One of the most recently approved programs is a physical therapy assistant degree at San Diego Mesa College. The program, which will be tailored to licensed physical therapist assistants who want to learn additional skills, is set to enroll its first cohort in fall 2027.
The degree was approved locally in 2023, but final statewide approval was delayed because of an objection by CSU San Bernardino, which offers a degree in kinesiology. It was one of more than a dozen degrees that were stuck in limbo, in some cases for years, because of CSU objections.
In San Diego Mesa’s case, officials argued that CSU San Bernardino did not have a genuine claim of duplication because the two campuses are located about 95 miles apart.
That argument was backed up by a WestEd report published last year. The community college system contracted WestEd, a nonprofit organization, to analyze CSU’s duplication objections to 16 proposed degrees.
In the case of Mesa’s program, the analysis found that very few students transfer from Mesa to San Bernardino, suggesting the two campuses aren’t competing for the same students.
CSU San Bernardino never formally dropped its objection to Mesa’s degree, but state community college officials approved the program anyway earlier this year.
Greg Smith, chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, which includes the Mesa campus, said he’s grateful the degree was finally approved, but he lamented how long it took.
“We could have been graduating our first cohort this year if we’d had a timely process for getting it approved,” he said. “The harm that was caused in the short term, for our students and for our local employers, you can’t go back and undo that.”
He said he’s hopeful one of the two bills under consideration will become law and prevent similar delays in the future.
“Making duplication a regional concern, not a statewide concern, makes a ton of policy sense and would accelerate the pace with which our colleges could propose and then actually implement degree programs to serve their area,” Smith said.
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