College plan worries officials

Efforts to limit localized control could hurt institutions, leaders say

State college leaders say a bill meant to reduce waste and duplication between Florida’s higher education institutions could hamstring their ability to meet local demands for graduates with bachelor’s degrees.

The proposal, which cleared a preliminary vote in a Senate subcommittee meeting in November, would cap the percentage of state college students enrolled in baccalaureate degree programs, transfer oversight to a community college board and rename the state colleges, which would once again be known as community colleges.

“It’s going to have a huge impact,” Seminole State President Ann McGee said. “One of our strengths has always been the local control piece, where we can meet local needs. If you have a state board that then has control over that, your ability to respond to local workforce needs is going to be very hindered.”

Higher education reform has

been a priority of Senate President Joe Negron, who championed a bill during the last session that contained many of the same proposals. Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the bill, saying he thought it would “impede” progress at state colleges, partly because it limited their ability to offer four-year degrees.

The state colleges, which traditionally focused on associate degrees and vocational programs, were first allowed to award bachelor’s degrees in 2001.

Sen. Dorothy Hukill, RPort Orange, said during the committee meeting that the proposal, called the Community College Competitiveness Act of 2018, provides for “advocacy, transparency and oversight.”

Awarding baccalaureate degrees would become a secondary mission of the state colleges, she said, rather than a primary one.

Enrollment in bachelor’s degree programs would be capped at 20 percent for each individual institution, but the average enrollment statewide would be limited to 10 percent, meaning not every college could have 20 percent of their students in these four-year programs.

Central Florida’s state colleges fall well below that 20 percent mark. At Valencia College and Lake-Sumter State College, about 1 percent of students are in bachelor’s degree programs. At Seminole State College, the share is about 6 percent.

But those numbers are expected to climb because last summer the State Board of Education gave approval for Valencia, Seminole State, Lake-Sumter and Eastern Florida State College in Brevard County to add bachelor’s degrees programs in nursing, part of a regional effort to increase the number of students with higher academic training in that field. Seats are limited in the University of Central Florida’s traditional bachelor’s program in nursing, which routinely turns away qualified candidates.

McGee said that the expansion of these programs should be driven by the needs of local employers, not “an artificial cap.” For example, local hospitals have indicated Central Florida needs 1,000 new nurses with bachelor’s degrees each year for the next 10 years, she said.

“To fill what is a documented workforce need — that’s the only time we offer bachelor’s degrees,” she said.

The Senate proposal would also establish a state board of community colleges to oversee the institutions, a role the state board of education now has. The state board also oversees Florida’s public universities.

Stanley Sidor, president of Lake-Sumter, said he was “baffled” about why lawmakers wanted to overhaul the governance system of the state colleges, already considered some of the best in the country. Valencia and Santa Fe College in Gainesville have won the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence and three other Florida colleges have been named finalists since the award program was started in 2011.

McGee said she and other college leaders would work with lawmakers to refine the proposal, which would also tweak the performance funding model for the state colleges.

Ava Parker, president of Palm Beach State College, said during the subcommittee meeting that she worried about the “unintended consequences” of the bill. She said she wasn’t shying away from the performance-funding system, but urged lawmakers not to alter the formula. The Senate proposal would hold the colleges responsible for the graduation rates of the students who transfer to state universities.

“It’s very difficult for a college to be responsible for what happens to a student once they transfer to a university,” Parker said.

Leaders at Valencia College, which serves Orange and Osceola counties, declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the proposal.