By snoadmin
Marty Block, San Diego State University professor, dean, and director turned Assemblyman is proposing a bill that would allow some California Community Colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing and other “high demand” subjects. “For the first time, in more than a decade, [SDSU] has said they will not admit all CSU qualified freshmen,” Block said, “So somebody has to provide them with that educational access.”
SDSU is not the only university applying this policy. With the budget crisis hitting the California State University system and University of California system the hardest, California’s higher education is cutting enrollment. Assemblyman Block seems to believe that allowing community colleges to award bachelor’s degrees would give California students access to the educational opportunities they need.
Ten states already allow their community colleges to award bachelor’s degrees; is this move the right one for California? Community colleges in Florida offer bachelor’s degrees in disciplines like science education and public safety.
Assemblyman Block cites budget woes as the impetus behind the proposal of this bill, but will this legislation save the state money?
If this were the only thing stopping the bill — the question of whether or not it will help the state’s budget—then by all means let it pass. Even further, let’s start associate degree programs in high school.
The problem with the bill, however, is not that it doesn’t save the state money — it probably will. In fact, it will also lessen the burden the CSU and UC systems have — less people would need to apply to these schools.
But does California want this? We say no.
If this bill passes we are scrapping our “Master Plan” and essentially setting the bar that much lower. No one will argue against the fact that CSU and UC systems provide a higher quality education. Community colleges are just not equipped to compete.
The California Legislature must not allow itself to offer accessible low-quality education at a discounted price. Otherwise the promise of a California degree would diminish. The age-old phrase comes to mind: You get what you pay for.
Some community colleges may be of high quality but across the board the California Community College system is never to be compared to the likes of Cal State Long Beach or UCLA. It just doesn’t make sense.
If California families are hit with hard times it may be OK to go to MacDonald’s a few times a week rather than cook a traditional family dinner. It may be OK to buy generic beverages or even generic tampons. However, if California offers a bachelor’s “degree-lite” of sorts, than who are we really kidding other than ourselves? The consequences of these actions span much farther than any generic Coca-Cola.
Low-income students should not be turned to community colleges for higher education. If Californians want to offer higher education to all, if Californians want to offer equality in higher education, then we must do it the right way. We must subsidize higher education for low-income students. Any other measure would be hypocritical.
It would not be irrational to argue against a subsidy of higher education but to call for an equal opportunity in higher education only to turn those who lack this opportunity to community colleges, well that’s just hypocrisy at its best.
