Community colleges answer Perry's call

[Double L]

Community colleges answer Perry's call

Educators say they can provide $10,000 degree

By MELISSA LUDWIG

San Antonio Express-News

Feb. 12, 2011, 10:28PM

Is a $10,000 bachelor's degree possible?

In his State of the State address this week, Gov. Rick Perry issued a challenge to universities to create a $10,000 bachelor's degree with textbooks included, an idea he reportedly picked up from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Though many secretly scoffed, some education leaders say it can be done — quickly and with little extra money - at community colleges.

"We already have the facilities, the infrastructure, the doctorate faculty," said Bruce Leslie, chancellor of the Alamo Colleges. "You could take community colleges and do that without building a whole new infrastructure, or forcing existing four-year universities to downsize."

Community colleges in 17 states, including Texas, already offer bachelor's degrees, most in applied technology areas that do not compete with universities. But that doesn't mean community colleges are unable - or unwilling - to expand.

"It is an idea that is long overdue," said Shirley Reed, president of South Texas College in McAllen.

Programs in place

According to Reed, her two degrees in technology management and computer and information technology run about $10,000, not including textbooks. By contrast, the cheapest bachelor's degree at a four-year university is about $18,000 at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. That does not include books.

South Texas, Brazosport and Midland colleges all offer bachelor's of applied technology degrees. State Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, has filed a bill to add a fire science degree at the Alamo Colleges to that list.

But prospects look grim for all those degrees. The House's proposed bare-bones budget "zeroed out" all bachelor's degree programs at community colleges and eliminated funding for Brazosport College and three other community colleges altogether.

According to Texas Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes, community colleges can be part of the solution, but universities must also find ways to hold down costs.

"If we keep going the way we are, a baccalaureate degree at a public university will cost $100,000 at some institutions in five years. We can't go there. The state does not have the resources, we are not going to have enough financial aid to cover those costs. We have got to find different models," Paredes said.

Lower costs

Community colleges keep costs low because they pay faculty and staff less money and they hire adjunct professors, who are cheaper than tenured faculty. They don't do research, they don't field NCAA football teams and they don't build dormitories and recreation centers.

Those things are what make up the "college experience," and there will always be young students who want that and will pay for it, Paredes said. But there is plenty of evidence to suggest a growing demand from students who are older, who work, who have families and who simply want a degree as fast and cheaply as possible, he said.

"Nobody is talking about everybody offering this low-cost, no-frills degree. We are talking about providing students an alternative and reinventing higher education," Paredes said.

He said he also worries that if community colleges begin offering liberal arts and sciences degrees, they will suffer from the same "mission creep" that has regional universities striving to be national research institutions.

But Beth Hagan, president of the Community College Baccalaureate Association, said that community colleges can be selective about the degrees they offer.

In Florida, for instance, community colleges offer baccalaureate degrees in high-demand fields such as nursing and education.

"I think it boils down to the mission. If a community college perceives there is a need for a particular degree, why not step up to the plate and meet that need?" Hagan said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7425146.html

mludwig@express-news.net

[LTAWACS]

Whoa...

[wernicke]

I like how the plan is to cut $5 billion from Texas education (already near last in education funding) while absorbing the influx of new students moving into the state, while at the same time demanding a $10000 degree... and we expect to have an educated workforce in the future.