Gov. Gavin Newsom put his signature Friday on a pair of bills designed to bring order to the sometimes chaotic growth of bachelor’s degree programs at California’s community colleges, though the legislation drew last-minute pushback from the very institutions it was meant to help.
The new laws — Senate Bill 960, authored by Napa Democrat Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, and Assembly Bill 2694, from Assemblymember David Alvarez — will let community college districts add between two and 12 new bachelor’s degree programs annually beginning in 2028. Under the framework, districts with stronger track records on graduation and transfer rates will be allowed to launch more new programs than those with weaker outcomes. The caps won’t affect bachelor’s degrees already up and running.
Currently, 49 community colleges statewide offer or are preparing to offer 66 bachelor’s degree programs. Going forward, districts will also have to demonstrate a genuine regional workforce need before adding a new program, and the annual limits will apply uniformly, regardless of whether a district operates a single campus or a network of nine.
Despite having pushed for the legislation, community college advocates ultimately opposed it after lawmakers made substantial changes just a day before a critical constitutional deadline. Their objection centers on linking degree caps to student outcome data, which they say unfairly penalizes districts serving large numbers of low-income students — students who statistically are less likely to complete certificates, earn associate degrees or transfer to four-year universities, even though they stand to benefit from more local bachelor’s degree options tied to their community’s job market.
Other college system leaders raised concerns that the bills’ late additions left too many unanswered questions. Larry Galizio, president and CEO of the Community College League of California, which represents college presidents and trustees, said in an earlier interview that being asked to endorse a process “that is not completely understood or vetted at the last minute… is just not great policymaking.”
At the heart of both bills is a long-simmering conflict between the community college system and California State University. Since 2022, community colleges have been capped at 30 new bachelor’s degrees per year, provided those programs didn’t overlap with existing offerings at any CSU or University of California campus. In practice, CSU has frequently objected to proposed community college degree programs — and on occasion, colleges moved forward with them regardless.
Community college leaders and their allies in the Legislature argued it was unreasonable to block local bachelor’s degree programs simply because a similar one exists at a UC or CSU campus that might be hundreds of miles away. Students have voiced frustration over not being able to complete a four-year degree close to home, particularly when relocating isn’t financially feasible.
California has 115 community colleges — nearly four times as many as the 31 CSU and UC campuses that currently offer bachelor’s degrees.
Under the newly signed laws, community colleges will be permitted to launch a bachelor’s degree even if a nearby CSU campus offers something similar, but only if that CSU program has turned away more than 25% of applicants from the neighboring community college for three years running.
The legislation also creates, for the first time, a formal process for resolving disputes between the two systems. If California’s labor secretary reviews a contested case and sides with the community college, the CSU objection is effectively overridden. If the labor secretary instead backs CSU, the community college district is barred from applying for a similar program for five years. CSU, which had opposed earlier drafts of the bills, shifted to a neutral stance once the revised language was released.
Community colleges remain generally prohibited from duplicating a UC degree program unless the two sides reach a formal written agreement.
Separately, Newsom vetoed another closely watched bill — this one from Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Merced Democrat — that would have allowed community colleges to offer a bachelor’s degree in nursing, something currently off-limits. It was the third consecutive year Soria has pushed the measure, and the third time Newsom has rejected it. In his veto message, the governor said the new framework created by the Alvarez and Cabaldon bills makes a separate nursing degree pilot unnecessary.
“It is neither necessary nor appropriate to authorize an additional pilot or create an exception to the framework, as this bill proposes,” Newsom wrote. “California’s public higher education segments should instead focus on implementing this newly created, comprehensive system.”
Original source: CalMatters
