With tens of thousands of Californians turning to private and out-of-state schools for distance learning, Brown and Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley say they want to provide an affordable, high-quality option for busy adults to gain skills that will help them in the labor market. They’re asking the Legislature to approve $100 million in startup funds and $20 million in ongoing annual costs for an independent college district that would start enrolling students in fall 2019.
Designed in collaboration with employers and labor unions, the new college’s curriculum would feature short courses leading to certificates or badges that carry value in high-demand industries like health care, child care, information technology and manufacturing. Students could learn at their own pace, would be eligible for state financial aid and might even be able to pay a flat fee to access unlimited courses.
. . . But some faculty groups have raised concerns that the plan takes a group of students least prepared to succeed online and shunts them off into a virtual ghetto, while their transfer-bound peers enjoy the benefits of face-to-face interaction with instructors. They say the funds should instead be used to bolster the community colleges’ Online Education Initiative, aimed at increasing the quality and accessibility of online courses at the system’s existing 114 colleges.
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