Graduation for the Colleges

California’s community colleges have long been treated like super high schools. As a result of major reforms enacted by the Legislature on the last day of the session, they can graduate into the world of true higher education. The bill would change the methods of funding campuses and selecting faculty members, and it specifies, at long last, their role in higher education and describes what they are supposed to do for students.

The bill, which is expected to be signed by Gov. George Deukmejian, shows what state government can do when not much money is immediately at stake. Starting the reforms would add $7.25 million to this year’s $2.2-billion community-college budget, but the bulk of the reforms depend on spending $70 million for each of the two following years.

The bill would write into law for the first time the mission of community colleges: to offer both vocational training and courses that allow students to transfer to four-year colleges and universities. Courses for personal enrichment are allowed, but must not stand in the way of the principal goals. The measure also recognizes that an important role for community colleges is providing remedial courses and teaching English to immigrants.

The community colleges would become more clearly parts of a statewide system rather than a set of local fiefdoms. In the past the Legislature has tried to create some unity by drafting the system’s overall budget and setting whatever program standards existed. That responsibility now shifts to the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, whose decisions can be vetoed only by a two-thirds vote of college districts.

Local trustees would still set priorities for local programs. But the bill recognizes that authority over the budget has already shifted to Sacramento and that educators, not legislators, should draw up the system’s financial and educational plans.

Faculty reform will come slowly, but in time faculty members would become more like those at other institutions of higher education. Community-college teaching credentials are now issued by the state; under the reform, credentials would be abolished. Future faculty members would need more education to qualify, and would undergo the same kind of peer review that occurs at four year schools. Good teaching, rather than research, would be the basis for granting tenure.

Faculty quality should also improve, because community colleges would now have an incentive to hire more staff members to devote their full time attention to students. If only 75% or less of a college’s instructors teach full time, the school must use at least one-third of its new money to hire full-timers.

Funds included in the reform include $1.3 million to start an aggressive recruiting program to create a pool of minority and female candidates for teaching jobs. It’s a chance for the colleges to remake the face of their institutions.

Students in Los Angeles would especially benefit, because the formula for financing the colleges would no longer depend strictly on attendance. That hurt local colleges when their attendance fell. Now other factors like the size of buildings, the needs of the library and the size of classes would be considered.

None of this package came easily. First a state commission reviewed the master plan. Then task forces, created by bills by Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), brought college administrators and legislators together to deal with questions of financing and accountability. Then there were weeks and months of negotiation. Particularly deserving high marks for their work are Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), head of the Legislature’s joint committee on the master plan, along with Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), Sen. James W. Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park), Assemblyman Charles Bader (R-Pomona) and Hayden.

One huge hurdle has been crossed with the passage of this important bill. Two more remain: providing the money and actually doing the job. But the framework for reform is now in place, and that’s worth celebrating.