California lawmakers advanced a bill that would allow some community colleges to add bachelor’s degree programs, a move that supporters say would expand access for students who want a more affordable four-year option close to home. The measure, Assembly Bill 664, cleared its first legislative tests by passing the California Assembly on Jan. 26, potentially setting up another confrontation with Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom has already vetoed three bills in the past two years that would have expanded community colleges’ ability to offer more bachelor’s degrees. The governor supports more bachelor’s degrees, but has said he opposes adding community college baccalaureate programs outside the process established in a 2021 law that he and lawmakers approved.
That 2021 law permits community colleges to develop up to 30 bachelor’s degrees per academic year, with a key restriction: the degrees cannot duplicate baccalaureate programs offered by the University of California and California State University. Since the law was enacted, community colleges and Cal State have disagreed over what qualifies as “duplication,” and more than a dozen community college bachelor’s programs have stalled as a result.
UC and Cal State oppose Assembly Bill 664. They fear the latest proposal could unravel the 2021 framework, and both systems argue that they are the traditional generators of bachelor’s degrees. Community colleges, including those pushing for expansion, say California’s geographic scale makes it unreasonable to limit public four-year offerings to just UC and Cal State when many students live far from the universities.
Supporters of the bill say students should not have to enroll in distant universities when a community college near them could provide a bachelor’s degree. The bill’s main author, Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat from Chula Vista, said his proposal is designed for applied disciplines and local labor-market needs rather than expanding general bachelor’s programs such as psychology. “I would expect nothing less from each one of you to do what I’m trying to do here,” Alvarez said to fellow lawmakers on Jan. 13.
Alvarez also argued that the 2021 limit on community college bachelor’s degree creation “has fallen short,” and he said in an interview that Californians are falling short on opportunity and access for students. “California is about providing opportunity and access to students,” Alvarez said. “Are we actually doing that in the state? I would say the answer to that today is we are falling, very, very short.”
In response, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, the former chancellor of the state’s community college system, said he has been opposed to community colleges offering baccalaureate degrees and called it “a mistake.” Oakley said a better approach would be to send professors at under-enrolled Cal State campuses to community colleges that want to offer bachelor’s programs, rather than creating more new degree programs inside the community college system. He added that developing additional bachelor’s offerings would require hiring more full-time faculty and administrators and said it can take two to three years before new degrees are available to students.
Alvarez’s bill would be limited to southwestern College within his district, allowing up to four additional bachelor’s programs in applied disciplines, such as teaching English to speakers of other languages and designing websites. Alvarez said his bill also requires Southwestern to collaborate with nearby universities to create smoother pathways for students, and he pointed to a collaboration effort in which nearby university professors teach on the Southwestern campus.
In the broader debate over whether community college bachelor’s degrees should expand, the article describes affordability differences and notes that community college baccalaureate programs are still new. The bachelor’s degrees offered by community colleges are described as costing about $10,000 for all four years. It also says around 300 students earn community college bachelor’s degrees annually, compared with about 160,000 students earning bachelor’s degrees at UC and Cal State.
A recent National Bureau of Economic Research study cited in the reporting found that community college bachelor’s degrees lead to higher wages than associate degrees would but slightly lower earnings compared with bachelor’s degrees from traditional universities, with results varying by major. The article also says the community college system does not publish graduation-rate information in the same public-facing way as CSU. “We do not have this information packaged in a public-facing tool like CSU provides,” Melissa Villarin, a spokesperson for the California Community Colleges, wrote in an email.
Despite the added capacity argument from supporters, UC and Cal State say Assembly Bill 664 would circumvent the 2021 law’s process because the systems would not be able to appeal the programs Southwestern launches under the new measure. The article says the 2021 law has led to more than 50 approved community college bachelor’s programs at around 40 colleges, compared with 15 community colleges offering one bachelor’s degree each before the law took effect.
Lawmakers will have until Aug. 31 to send Assembly Bill 664 to Newsom.