(The Center Square) – Opponents of Senate Bill 2482 and House Bill 3717 argue that allowing community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees could dilute education quality and duplicate existing university programs, despite claims it would expand access and address workforce needs.
State Rep. Paul Jacobs, R-Pomona, who serves on the House Appropriations-Higher Education Committee, said he doesn’t even know why you would want a community college four-year degree if you could get the university degree through Illinois’ 2+2 Program.
“I’m not sure if this isn’t some kind of a power-play to try to get students from the universities into the community or junior colleges, which I think is really anti-productive. The whole idea of having the community or junior college is to provide education for things that communities need,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs said through the current program, students can get a university degree but pay community college prices.
“So you can still get a SIU [Southern Illinois University] or a U of I [University of Illinois] or one of the university degrees, a baccalaureate, from a university and have done most of the time at the community college,” said Jacobs.
The bills appear to not be advancing. Jacobs suspects they’ll be revised and reintroduced next legislative session.
Jacob’s clarified that he’s not making any direct accusations but noted that SB 2482 and HB 3717 seem to be strategically positioned as a way for public universities and community colleges to justify requesting more public funding.
“Since this bill in my estimation is not moving this year, I think with the disarray and in fighting within the Democrat party, we will end up eventually with something entirely different,” said Jacobs.
According to Jacobs, a drop in university enrollment could lead to decreased private funding, forcing universities to rely more heavily on taxpayer dollars to make up the difference.
Jacobs said community colleges offering four-year degrees would dilute the education quality.
“I love my community college professors. I think that they do a wonderful job. I do feel that the university professors are probably maybe a little bit more proficient at the particulars that are going to require baccalaureate,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs also explained community colleges offering four year degrees might exacerbate the problem with understaffed trades.
“I think that the community colleges would have to staff additional professors qualified to do baccalaureate degrees, which will increase cost to the taxpayer. They will also request facility improvements and increases in size, which will increase cost to the taxpayer,” said Jacobs.
