New Law Lets Community Colleges Offer Bachelor’s Degrees

Career College Central Summary:

One of the many bills Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law over the weekend makes it possible for some community colleges in California to offer bachelor's degrees.
The new law allows the California chancellor of community colleges to choose 15 community colleges to be the first to offer bachelor's degrees.
San Diego Community College Chancellor Constance Carroll said many schools are vying for a spot in the pilot program.
“Well, statewide I know at least 47 of the 72 community college districts are planning to submit proposals, and we are too,” Carroll said.
Getting a four-year degree has become more and more difficult.
Last year, more than 77,000 people applied to San Diego State University and more than 89,000 tried to go to UC San Diego.
Applications far exceed openings at both SDSU and UC San Diego.
State Sen. Marty Block introduced and co-authored the bill. He said that the difficulty of getting into SDSU and UC San Diego inspired him to write the bill.
“In San Diego it's difficult to get a four-year public bachelor's degree because San Diego State is so impacted, UCSD is impacted,” Block said.
“So it occurred to me, why not let San Diego City College, Mesa College, all of the other good colleges in San Diego and the state offer this four-year degree.”
Baccalaureate degrees offered at the chosen campuses will not duplicate degrees offered by UC or the CSU campuses.
Block said that the bill was also a response to for-profit schools targeting veterans.