Senate Bill 3787, currently in the Illinois legislature, would enable the state’s community colleges to confer some types of baccalaureate degrees if the programs meet certain specifications. Lorenzo Baber is the director of the Office of Community College Research and Leadership and a professor of education policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He spoke with education editor Sharita Forrest about the bill.
This bill looks like it is an exciting opportunity for community colleges and their typical student population.
It is. It is a trend across the country. Florida, Washington and California have already implemented community college baccalaureates.
It is an opportunity to elevate pathways to the bachelor’s degree through community colleges and populations that have been underserved. We do not have enough four-year degrees among working adults and among different populations that are locally bound. Community colleges are already positioned to serve those populations. Just giving them opportunities to offer these degrees would be valuable for those regions and for the state overall.
What are the typical programs that have been implemented in other states and will Illinois community colleges be offering similar programs?
They are tied to workforce and industry needs, mainly in manufacturing and health-care fields and information systems management — industries that have elevated the educational requirements for entry-level or mid-level positions from an associate degree to a bachelor’s degree.
The biggest example is respiratory therapy — many colleges are offering that. That is an area where entry-level used to be an associate degree, but these jobs now require a four-year degree. And that is a program that very few, if any, four-year institutions currently offer. Community colleges can fill that gap.
To what extent might this initiative increase completion and degree-attainment rates?
Illinois’ attainment rates for bachelor’s degrees are average or even slightly above average compared with other states, but they’re not equitable. There are pockets of demographic and regional inequities. This bill would address those needs specifically.
The second thing that is important to understand is that the competition between four-year institutions and community colleges would not be increased. The students’ decision-making is not “I’m going either to the community college or to a regional.” It is, “I’m either going to the community college or I’m not getting a bachelor’s degree.”
It will give people who otherwise probably would not get a bachelor’s degree an opportunity to do so in the space where they are and that has historically served that population, including working adults and locally bound students.
We have evidence from Washington and Florida that enrollment at four-year institutions has not suffered from the expansion of bachelor’s degree opportunities through the community colleges.
The Illinois bill places restrictions on the cost of tuition for the courses in these programs. That must present an enticing cost savings for these students.
Cost effectiveness means less student loan debt and creates opportunities to attract students who might be resistant to a sticker price that is over what they can afford. Affordability is a huge barrier to a bachelor’s degree.
I appreciate the bill being thoughtful in saying that while we want to expand these opportunities, we also want to make sure that they are affordable for the population we want to target.
Is there any target date when these degree programs will be available?
I would imagine a multiyear process for making sure they align with the needs of the state, do not overlap with another college’s program and ensuring that the programs meet the standards through accreditation.
Community colleges will have to go through the accreditation process. I am sure there is going to be some negotiation with the Illinois Community College Board and the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
But it is a good first step to have these conversations and start that planning. That timing is important because you want to make sure there are not any unintended consequences, or to have a plan for them and structure these programs in ways that can address these issues in a collaborative spirit between higher education institutions.
The Illinois bill requires community colleges to demonstrate that their programs are going to improve racial and socioeconomic equity through outreach and give preference to those student populations. Do you see that becoming a flashpoint for conservative lawmakers or other people since diversity, equity and inclusion programs have been struck down in other states?
No, I do not, if they look at the data. We know that, for example, that the degree attainment rate among Black students in Illinois is 33%. The attainment rate for Latinx students — the fastest growing population in the state — is even less.
If you look at it from both equity and workforce needs perspectives, you would say it must focus on those populations because they are currently underserved. They also overlap with working adult populations who are already embedded in the field and tend to be locally bound.
I do not think the language suggests it should be exclusionary to other student populations, but that we should focus on these groups because the evidence indicates that racialized minorities have the lowest attainment rates in the state.