California’s community colleges will soon be able to offer many more four-year degrees. How many each district can add, however, will depend on how well its students perform.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 960 and Assembly Bill 2694 on Sept. 18. The two measures were authored by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon (D-Napa) and Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego), and they are legally linked: SB 960 takes effect only if AB 2694 is also enacted. Together, they replace the framework created by AB 927 in 2021, which capped new programs at 30 statewide per year and barred any overlap with California State University or University of California degrees.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2028, each of the system’s 73 districts can launch between two and 12 new bachelor’s programs. The 66 degrees already offered or approved at 49 colleges are grandfathered and won’t count toward those limits.
Each district’s allowance hinges on performance. The Chancellor’s Office will sort districts into five tiers based on the share of students who earn a credential or transfer within three years, measured against the statewide average. Top-tier districts can add up to 10 programs, 11 if they have multiple campuses, and 12 if they enroll 75,000 or more full-time-equivalent students. The lowest tier is capped at two. A separate provision limits any district to 10 programs at a time, which appears to conflict with the higher allowances for the largest districts. The chancellor may move a lower-tier district up one level if its rate rose two percentage points in each of the three most recent cohort years.
Districts may submit up to three proposals a year. Each proposal must show that the program meets a current or projected workforce need. Bachelor’s programs also cannot take seats away from associate degrees, certificates or noncredit courses.
The laws loosen long-standing limits on duplicating university programs. A community college may now offer a degree similar to one at a nearby Cal State campus if that campus has accepted fewer than 75% of its transfer applicants for three consecutive years. Cal State must publish those acceptance rates by early 2028. If a Cal State campus objects, the state’s secretary of Labor and Workforce Development has 90 days to decide. A district that loses must wait five years before applying for a similar degree. Duplicating a UC program still requires written permission. Online bachelor’s degrees remain off-limits when Cal State or UC already offers comparable online programs.
The final version drew opposition from the community college system itself. The system had backed the effort for most of the legislative session. In August, however, Chancellor Sonya Christian told lawmakers the system had to oppose the bills because of the outcome-based tiers. In a letter published by CalMatters, she warned that a district could improve its results and still be penalized if the statewide average shifted. She said that risk would fall hardest on rural and historically underserved communities. A college could have a clear workforce need and the capacity to run a strong program, she told lawmakers, but “still be limited because of where its district falls in the statewide ranking.”
Cal State and UC initially opposed the legislation but moved to a neutral position after revisions. Cal State has long argued that community college bachelor’s programs could pull students away from its 22 campuses, which face budget deficits and declining enrollment at some schools. A 2023 report from UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, however, found that the systems largely serve different students. It called duplication concerns “greatly exaggerated.”
Newsom also vetoed AB 2301, which would have created a community college nursing bachelor’s pilot. It was his third consecutive veto of the idea.
