In the past two years, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed three bills that would have allowed community colleges to award students more bachelor\u2019s degrees. Unfazed, lawmakers are now backing a fourth bill that does much of the same.<\/p>\n
The measure, Assembly Bill 664<\/a>, cleared its first legislative tests by passing the Assembly Jan. 26, potentially setting up another collision course between state lawmakers and the governor. While Newsom supports more bachelor\u2019s degrees for students, he\u2019s repeatedly<\/a> stated his opposition<\/a> to adding more<\/a> community college baccalaureate programs that go outside an agreed-upon process in a law that he and lawmakers approved in 2021<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n That law said community colleges can develop up to 30 bachelor\u2019s degrees per academic year, as long as the degrees do not duplicate the baccalaureate programs of the University of California and California State University.<\/p>\n But since then, community colleges and Cal State have disagreed on what counts as duplication, resulting in more than a dozen stalled community college bachelor\u2019s programs because Cal State opposed them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both public<\/a> university systems <\/a>oppose the latest bill. They fear more community colleges will seek their own degrees that duplicate what the universities offer, unraveling the 2021 law. Students shouldn\u2019t be forced to enroll in universities dozens or hundreds of miles from home when the community college a few miles away can offer a bachelor\u2019s degree that employers in the area say more workers need, bill backers say. Those backers include its main author, Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat from Chula Vista.\u00a0<\/p>\n His bill would allow the community college in his district, Southwestern College, to create up to four additional bachelor\u2019s programs<\/a> in applied disciplines, such as teaching English to speakers of other languages and designing websites. Alvarez stresses that his bill isn\u2019t creating more general bachelor\u2019s degree programs popular at the universities, such as psychology. Rather, he\u2019s seeking to develop programs employers seek<\/a> in the south San Diego County area.\u00a0<\/p>\n While his bill is limited to just his district, Alvarez told fellow lawmakers<\/a> Jan. 13 to follow his lead in creating bachelor\u2019s degree programs at their local community colleges if they have unmet labor market needs. \u201cI would expect nothing less from each one of you to do what I\u2019m trying to do here.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2021 law limiting community college bachelor\u2019s degree creation \u201chas fallen short,\u201d he said then.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just the right amount of news<\/p>\n Just the right amount of news<\/p>\n Get California\u2019s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n Get California\u2019s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n In an interview, Alvarez doubled-down on the point that too many communities have adults eager to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree but either cannot get into an over-enrolled public university or live too far away.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia is about providing opportunity and access to students,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cAre we actually doing that in the state? I would say the answer to that today is we are falling very, very short.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But the former chancellor of the state\u2019s community college system thinks Alvarez\u2019s bill, however well intentioned, is the wrong approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI have, from the beginning, been opposed to community colleges offering baccalaureate degrees,\u201d said Eloy Ortiz Oakley. \u201cI think it is a mistake.\u201d He was system chancellor when the first community college bachelor\u2019s degrees were underway. Now he thinks a better solution is to send professors at under-enrolled Cal State campuses to community colleges that want bachelor\u2019s degrees, such as Southwestern.<\/p>\n Developing more bachelor\u2019s programs means hiring additional full-time faculty and administrators. It\u2019s an approach that adds costs to public systems of higher education at a time when the state government is projecting multi-billion dollar deficits. Creating new bachelor\u2019s degrees also takes two to three years before they\u2019re offered to students, he said. If there\u2019s market demand now, colleges and universities should collaborate by merging academic staff now as well, Oakley said. He now leads the College Futures Foundation, which is a CalMatters funder.<\/p>\n Alvarez notes that his bill requires Southwestern College to collaborate<\/a> with nearby universities to create smoother pathways for students to earn bachelor\u2019s degrees \u2014 similar to Oakley\u2019s recommendation. Alvarez notes that Southwestern is doing the work to bolster degree attainment; it\u2019s launching bachelor\u2019s degrees<\/a> programs so that nearby university professors teach on the Southwestern campus. However, he maintains that the college needs a legal dispensation to offer the bachelor\u2019s programs his community needs.<\/p>\n The emphasis on existing collaboration with the four-year campuses makes him think Newsom won\u2019t veto his bill, he said. Lawmakers will have until Aug. 31 to send the bill to the governor.<\/p>\n Appeal of community college bachelor\u2019s<\/p>\n Community college bachelor\u2019s degrees are cheaper than the ones offered at UC and Cal State,\u00a0 at about $10,000 for all four years. That\u2019s a win for students chasing affordability who may not qualify for the state\u2019s tuition waivers to the public universities, though about 60% of California students at UC and Cal State do.\u00a0<\/p>\n California\u2019s community colleges are relative novices at awarding these degrees: The first ones debuted about a decade ago<\/a>. Now, around 300 students earn bachelor\u2019s degrees at community colleges annually, compared to around 160,000 at the UC and Cal State. As a result, economic data is limited on whether these community college degrees lead to the higher pay that bachelor\u2019s degrees offered by the two public universities yield.\u00a0<\/p>\n A recent academic study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research reviewed several other states and found that community college bachelor\u2019s degrees lead to higher wages<\/a> than associate degrees would but slightly lower earnings compared to bachelor\u2019s degrees from traditional universities. Results varied by major.<\/p>\n Nor does the community college system publish public data on the graduation rates of students who pursue bachelor\u2019s degrees. The UC and Cal State do \u2014 and must by state and federal law.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not have this information packaged in a public-facing tool like CSU provides,\u201d wrote Melissa Villarin, a spokesperson for the California Community Colleges, in an email.<\/p>\n Public universities oppose bill<\/p>\n Both the UC<\/a> and Cal State<\/a> say the latest bill circumvents the 2021 law that allows community colleges to develop bachelor\u2019s programs annually as long as the degrees do not duplicate existing programs at the two university systems. Under the law, both systems get to weigh in on whether there\u2019s duplication<\/a>. But under Alvarez\u2019s bill, UC and Cal State can\u2019t appeal the programs Southwestern launches.<\/p>\n The law supercharged the creation of community college bachelor\u2019s programs \u2014 more than 50 are now approved at around 40 colleges. Before the law, 15 community colleges each offered one bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n Left unsaid by Cal State officials during a bill hearing Jan. 13 is the fear that more community college bachelor\u2019s programs will pull students from Cal State. But a Cal State administrator made just that point<\/a> when lawmakers in 2024 introduced two bills that would allow several community colleges to award bachelor\u2019s degrees in nursing. Those nursing bills cleared the Legislature but Newsom vetoed both. Cal State professors also worried about revenue losses<\/a> from community college bachelor\u2019s degrees in 2022 after the 2021 law passed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Several lawmakers are also on record in favor of more community colleges providing bachelor\u2019s degrees to address local workforce needs and create a more affordable option for students who can\u2019t leave their communities.<\/p>\n \u201cBaccalaureate programs at community colleges are the answer. I hope there\u2019s more encroachment,\u201d said<\/a> Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, a Democrat from Cupertino, during a legislative hearing on the bill Jan. 13.<\/p>\n The bill cleared the Assembly 69-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n Duplication has been a multi-year battle<\/p>\n In 2023, two leading lawmakers on higher education issues wrote to community colleges that they cannot duplicate existing UC and Cal State degrees, regardless of location. The letter came<\/a> as one community college created a bachelor\u2019s in fire management that resembled a bachelor\u2019s degree \u2014 not yet in existence \u2014 that was slated to be offered at a Cal State nearly 300 miles away. Cal State opposed the community college degree, but the college launched it anyway.<\/p>\n The issue was an ongoing one \u2014 the community college system in 2022 suggested that how far a college is from a public university can be a factor in whether a degree is duplicative<\/a> of the university\u2019s. The 2023 legislative letter seemingly supersedes that 2022 belief.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since the 2021 law through April of last year, the community colleges submitted 52 bachelor\u2019s programs for approval, according to a document Cal State shared with CalMatters<\/a>. Of those, 16 programs remain pending because of Cal State\u2019s duplication concerns and seven had duplication concerns that the segments resolved. The other 28 programs were approved without any duplication concerns. The remaining degree, in fire management, is the only one Cal State labels as one the system opposed but that a community college created anyway.<\/p>\n Southwestern, which is near the U.S. border with Mexico, has sought a bachelor\u2019s program in binational environmental architecture that has been disputed by Cal Poly Pomona for more than a year. That campus offers a similar program, without the binational emphasis.<\/p>\n Duplication hinges on whether the courses are similar, but the evaluation doesn\u2019t consider whether the university with the existing degree has the capacity to enroll all the students who desire that workforce skill, said Southwestern College President Mark Sancez at the Jan. 13 hearing, in defense of Alvarez\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n Southwestern College student Marilynn Palomino is in the process of earning an associate degree in criminal justice to work in a police crime lab doing forensic work. That position requires a bachelor\u2019s degree, wrote Chris Jonsmyr, a spokesperson for Alvarez, in an email. But the only forensics bachelor\u2019s at a public university in California is at San Jose State University, some 500 miles away, said Jonsmyr. Alvarez\u2019s bill would lead to an applied forensics bachelor\u2019s at Southwestern as one of the four programs it\u2019s proposing, his staff said.<\/p>\n Palomino is a single mother with a son and daughter. \u201cTransferring would require relocating hundreds of miles away with my children or leaving them behind,\u201d she told lawmakers Jan. 13.<\/p>\n Community colleges far from public universities<\/p>\n Several data points are a driving force in bringing bachelor\u2019s degrees to community colleges. One is that 29 of the state\u2019s 116 community colleges<\/a> are at least 25 miles from a public university, leaving many students \u201cplace-bound\u201d or regionally stuck in the area their community colleges serve. About 150,000 students attend these colleges that are far from public universities.<\/p>\n Students at community colleges that are within 25 miles of a public university transfer to a four-year university at higher rates than those that are farther away.<\/p>\n Community colleges have low transfer rates \u2014 just 21% of students who wanted to transfer do so after four years, a state report said<\/a>. This could be a sign of a broken transfer system that might be remedied if more colleges could offer bachelor\u2019s degrees. Or it could mean colleges aren\u2019t ready to expand their services when they\u2019ve struggled to graduate more students with degrees and certificates or transfer them at higher rates.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would you create a new product when the bulk of your products are failing?\u201d asked Oakley, the former community college system chancellor.<\/p>\n Enough students to go around<\/p>\n While Alvarez and Oakley disagree on whether bachelor\u2019s degrees for community colleges is the solution to bring more students into bachelor\u2019s programs, both say Cal State isn\u2019t meeting the moment.<\/p>\n After steady enrollment growth throughout the 2010s, Cal State has struggled financially because roughly half of its campuses are contending with enrollment declines. Thirteen of the system\u2019s 23 campuses had lower enrollments than their state targets last year.<\/a><\/p>\n
The universities see themselves as the traditional generators of bachelor\u2019s degrees. Community colleges say the state is too big and spread out to limit public four-year degrees to just the Cal State and UC.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769659222_789_Asset-4.png\")
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