New degrees offer more job creation

Community colleges are defined by their commitment to being open-access educational institutions, providing a wide range of academic, training and service functions. Because community colleges were created to serve the public directly, they are often changing in response to the needs of the community. Until now, California’s community colleges have offered only associate degrees. The recent need for workers that require more than two years of training has allowed for the tentative release of four-year, career-oriented degree programs at 15 California community colleges. Another venture aimed at accommodating the rising need for higher education is President Barack Obama’s national free community college plan. Given California’s faulty education system, implementing four-year bachelor degree programs in community colleges would have a more positive outcome for the state than the implementation of Obama’s community college plan.

Community colleges are the point of entry for many students into higher education. More than 1,100 community colleges in the United States serve nearly half of the U.S. undergraduate enrollment. Community college bachelor’s degrees are already in place in 21 other states, and their addition to California’s education system makes California “no longer behind the curve,” as Sen. Marty Block, who authored Senate Bill 850 allowing the 15 pilot degrees, put it. The schools were picked on the basis of location and their capacity to create a high-quality program in a short amount of time. Advocates of community college bachelor’s degrees have pushed for their introduction in California to generate up to 1 million degrees for the state workforce by 2025. The 15 pilot degrees in California community colleges are ones not offered by the University of California or California State University systems, including airframe manufacturing, industrial automation, automotive technology, dental hygiene and more. These career-oriented additions contribute to the aim of meeting demand for highly trained workers in technical fields who may not have the means to receive a “fancy” education.

California’s 112 community colleges charge the lowest average tuition and fees in the nation at $1,429 per year, which is less than half the national average. The system began to charge tuition in 1984 and then introduced the Board of Governors’ fee waiver, which waives tuition for qualified low-income students. According to the Washington Post, nearly two thirds of all high-school graduates enrolled full-time at a California community college receive a full-tuition waiver. These reductions in prices have heightened levels of participation in higher education in California. High participation rates, however, have not translated into high levels of post-secondary success. The majority of California community college students never earn a degree or certificate. If community college becomes completely free, it might decrease post-secondary success rates even further, since free tuition and fees can lead to a reduction in the cost of leaving school.

Given the variable nature of the skills needed in the workplace, the education system has to take on the responsibility of accommodating the workplace’s variability. Adding four-year bachelor’s degrees to community colleges is a good start in this direction, as are structural alterations in community colleges and exploring competency-based education over time-based education. While free community college education is well-intentioned, it could negatively impact California’s community college system, given its already low cost and multitude of opportunities to gain free education with the appropriate qualifications.