Lawmakers address private college concerns in amended bill allowing community college bachelor’s degrees

DES MOINES — Following a threat of looming closures across Iowa’s private university landscape, lawmakers have amended proposed legislation that would allow community colleges to start offering four-year degrees.

Instead of opening the bachelor’s degree space wide-open to Iowa’s 15 community colleges — which presidents and representatives from Iowa’s 27 private colleges and universities have said could force them out of business — lawmakers have updated House Study Bill 533 to limit the type of bachelor’s degrees community colleges could offer, how many they could offer, and the regions where they could be offered.

“A community college shall not offer a degree program that leads to a baccalaureate degree unless the community college's main campus is located at least 50 miles from the main campus of an institution of higher education governed by the state Board of Regents or the main campus of a private institution of higher education that is already offering the degree program that the community college proposes to offer,” according to the amendment that passed the House’s Higher Education Committee on Jan. 28.

The change would prevent Kirkwood Community College from offering bachelor’s degrees — as its main Cedar Rapids campus sits 21 miles from the University of Iowa in Iowa City — and Des Moines Area Community College, which is 35 miles from Iowa State University.

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Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo is only 13 miles from the University of Northern Iowa — keeping it off the list of bachelor’s-eligible campuses as well.

Some Iowa community colleges also sit within 50 miles of a private campus, like Eastern Iowa Community College in Davenport, which is just a mile from St. Ambrose University. Or Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City, which is just seven miles from Briar Cliff Universities.

Under the amended bill, those community colleges would have to limit their bachelor’s offerings to degrees not already offered at the nearby privates.

Additionally, any community college wanting to start offering four-year degrees must ensure the programming complies with a list of requirements, including that it leads to jobs addressing “a high-demand, sustained, and unmet workforce need within the community college region.”

The community college must prove the need using workforce indicators like current and projected job openings, wage data, workforce shortages, attainment gaps and documented employer support.

And community college bachelor’s must be in one of the following eight fields: education, nursing, information technology, public safety, business, health care management, agriculture or dental hygiene.

The bachelor’s program cannot be delivered entirely online. And no community college can offer more than three bachelor’s degrees.

Representatives of Iowa’s private colleges and universities in January presented their concerns with the bill to lawmakers, arguing they receive no state appropriations for general university operations and thus rely heavily on tuition from student enrollment — which is facing a projected decline both regionally and nationally.

“Without any question and without any doubt and without being hyperbolic or anything else, if House Study Bill 533 should pass, some of our private colleges will close,” Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities President Gary Steinke told lawmakers at the time. “Not all of them. But some of them will.”

In advocating for the bill, community college representatives and leaders reported an undeniable need due to “education deserts” in Iowa — which they defined as areas with “no affordable public four-year options nearby, forcing rural and place-bound students to relocate, pay higher tuition at private institutions, or stop at an associate degree.”

Given community colleges receive state support and are restricted in their tuition prices, private administrators have said they can’t compete with the lower-cost option.

Where tuition and fees at Kirkwood Community College this academic year cost $6,730, the price is nearly double at the University of Iowa, charging $11,622 for resident undergraduates, and more than eight times higher at Coe College, reporting a sticker price of $56,730.

All of Iowa’s privates offer significant financial aid packages — prompting some to simply slash the sticker price to more accurately reflect the true cost, like Central College, which now reports annual tuition and fees of $21,934.

Given the bill aims to create a “pilot program” for the community college bachelor’s — adding Iowa to a growing club nationally of states allowing it — lawmakers would require extensive reporting, including to the state on enrollment and retention, degree completion, workforce outcomes, alignment with workforce needs, employer engagement and financial sustainability.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com