{"id":233963,"date":"2017-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/bill-would-expand-community-college-ba-degree-program\/"},"modified":"2017-03-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T08:00:00","slug":"bill-would-expand-community-college-ba-degree-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/bill-would-expand-community-college-ba-degree-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Proyecto de ley ampliar\u00eda el programa de grado BA de la universidad comunitaria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Jack Beresford<\/p>\n

A new bill introduced in the California Senate would accelerate a pilot program that allows a limited number of California community colleges to offer four-year degrees.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 769 would expand California\u2019s community college baccalaureate pilot program from 15 to 30 programs and remove the current sunset, scheduled for 2023.<\/p>\n

State Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), introduced the bill In February to address the state\u2019s workforce needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia urgently needs more graduates with four-year degrees to meet the state\u2019s workforce demands,\u201d Sen. Hill said. \u201cThis bill increases the opportunities for more students to earn the four-year degrees that lead to the jobs that fuel California\u2019s economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 850, authored by Sen. Marty Block and signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2014, established California\u2019s baccalaureate pilot program.\u00a0When Block chose not to run for re-election in 2016, Sen. Hill stepped forward in support of extending and expanding the pilot program.<\/p>\n

One of the key provisions of Sen. Hill\u2019s bill is the removal of the sunset provision.\u00a0This would allow more time for the various pilot programs to fully develop.<\/p>\n

Under the current timeline, some prospective students have expressed hesitancy to enroll in one of the pilot programs in the future for fear that they may not complete their degree program before the sunset provision.<\/p>\n

Senator Hill says expanding the pilot program from 15 to 30 programs will also allow the state to better assess its effectiveness by providing a larger sample size.\u00a0The Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office is scheduled to conduct a preliminary review of the pilot program in 2018 and then again in 2022.<\/p>\n

SB 769 would also remove some what many consider \u201cunreasonable barriers\u201d to expanding the current pilot program in the future.\u00a0The bill would allow community colleges to offer some of the same degrees currently available at California State University campuses \u2014 but when those programs are located more than 100 miles away.<\/p>\n

The bill would also allow participating colleges in the pilot program to offer more than one degree.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/a>
In 2015, San Diego Mesa College welcomed the first cohort of students to its first four-year program in Health Information Management. The program is one of 15 in California\u2019s baccalaureate pilot program. (Courtesy of Mesa College)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) Chancellor Constance Carroll says there is strong demand for the new degree programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community college baccalaureate effort is a win-win situation for California,\u201d said Carroll.\u00a0\u201cWe have considerable information from the pilot program demonstrating the need for this type of workforce training, the support of employers, and the diversity and enthusiasm of the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carroll chaired the statewide campaign in support of SB 850 and is co-chairing a similar effort on behalf of the new bill along with Dr. Judy Miner, chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District.\u00a0They represent a large group of supporters statewide.<\/p>\n

Carroll says the initial cohort of students in San Diego Mesa College\u2019s Health Information Management program is highly diverse and includes many who are the first in their family to attend college.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2015, the program prepares students to work at a management level in a variety of health care settings and with starting salaries ranging from $83,000 to $144,000.<\/p>\n

Employers, including local health care providers and hospitals, say there is strong demand for well-trained and diverse graduates. Mesa College has offered a highly popular two-year degree in Health Information Technology since the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Across the state, the 10 pilot colleges that have programs underway have seen similarly diverse cohorts of students.<\/p>\n

Among the 206 students enrolled statewide, 57 percent are from underserved ethnic groups and 72 percent are female.\u00a0The other five colleges in the pilot program are currently recruiting students and expect to launch programs this fall.<\/p>\n

As policymakers consider accelerating the baccalaureate pilot program, affordability is a key consideration.<\/p>\n

Participating students pay approximately $10,560 in fees and tuition for their four-year degree, a fraction of the cost of private universities.\u00a0On average, California State University in-state students will pay $27,036 for four years of study.<\/p>\n

Currently, 22 other states allow community colleges to offer four-year degrees in workforce fields.<\/p>\n

As is the case in many of those states, SB 850 limits the programs that can be offered by California community colleges to specific career-technical fields such as dental hygiene, automotive technology, and airframe manufacturing technology.<\/p>\n

None of these programs are offered at the California State University or University of California systems.<\/p>\n

\u2014Jack Beresford is <\/em>director of communications and public relations for the <\/em>San Diego Community College District.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jack Beresford A new bill introduced in the California Senate would accelerate a pilot program that allows a limited number of California community colleges to offer four-year degrees. Senate Bill 769 would expand California\u2019s community college baccalaureate pilot program from 15 to 30 programs and remove the current sunset, scheduled for 2023.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1052,"featured_media":225078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11557","_seopress_titles_title":"Bill would expand community college BA degree program","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11557,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-valley-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1052"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}