STATE UPDATE
Howard A. Stahl
The Governor released his January Budget for the 2018-2019 year with two controversial proposals for the community college system described below.
A 115th FULLY ONLINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Back in May 2017, Governor Brown wrote Chancellor Oakley about the idea of establishing a fully online community college. Aimed at adults with a high school credential or some college but no certification, the idea has been to enable this audience of an estimated 2.5 million Californians to gain better workforce outcomes through this fully online college. In spite of critics who say online classes harm the students who need the most help, Governor Brown has proposed spending $120 million to develop a fully online community college. The proposal is expensive, unnecessary and counterproductive. Without face-to-face help from a teacher, students who struggle won’t perform well. I think we all know as faculty that first-time college students are the most-at-risk population we serve and the least likely to succeed without the kind of extensive support services provided by a college like ours which offers extensive and intrusive counseling, library services, tutoring, student clubs and faculty office hours. Many of these wrap-around services wound not exist at all in any completely online college.
Plentiful evidence bolstered by studies from the Brookings Institute and the Public Policy Institute of California clearly show this. But proponents say these online classes would reach those who cannot get to regular classes or our existing colleges. The people who would be targeted for this online community college are the very same ones our existing institutions statewide are already striving to reach. There is no need to create a 115th, fully online college in our system. It duplicates what our existing colleges can already deliver. Students from anywhere in California currently take classes at any college where they wish to attend.
If the Governor or the Chancellor has identified a new need, a population we are not serving or an area, like short-term certificates, where we need to expand, we should all get together and hammer out the best plan possible. This proposal was put together without the usual stakeholder input and how this online college would be accredited is currently unclear. To start some new college when every faculty group in the state is opposed to the idea will, I am sure, lead to overwhelmingly disappointing results.
