Near the end of his budget address this year, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker asked a community college student in the crowd to stand up.
"Melissa," he said, "wants to pursue a baccalaureate degree in nursing — but the cost and the commute to a school farther away will make it too expensive."
The governor said there were students like Melissa all over Illinois, and the state should help them.
"That's why," said Pritzker, "I'm proposing we allow community colleges to offer four-year baccalaureate degrees for in-demand career paths like nursing, advanced manufacturing, early childhood education, and beyond."
Illinois wouldn't be the first state to allow community colleges to offer four-year degrees. 24 states already do. Almost all of them include requirements the schools must meet before they can start.
In Illinois, under the proposed legislation, community colleges would have to prove there's an unmet workforce need they can meet, offer evidence that they have the financial resources and staff to provide it, and demonstrate that they're not duplicating a program already offered at a school in their district.
For example, community colleges wouldn't offer a psychology or elementary education degree.
"Those kinds of programs really are the bread and butter of universities," said Tracy Morris. She's the president of Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby. "They do them so well. It's targeted really to a different population who otherwise is not going to get a degree -- and we've seen that in Illinois."
Morris says this bill would be a seismic shift, especially for rural schools like IVCC.
"When you are where we are," she said, "and there's not a college for an hour away, the default reaction is, we'll just do online, but it's not always the best learning."
And for students who work full-time or have kids, commuting that far or moving is just not an option.
It's something Michael Jenkins has been thinking about. He's an advanced manufacturing student at Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon.
He just graduated with a credential and re-enrolled to take more classes. He also works full-time as an electronics technician at a company that makes diesel parts.
"We have big, huge, heavy coolers," said Jenkins, "and my job is to maintain production lines, keep machines running and keep making parts."
He's planning to transfer to Northern Illinois University for his bachelor's degree, so he can transition from the production floor to an engineering position. But because of his work demands, that won't be for a few years.
"My current plan," he said, "would require me to either commute over an hour to get to NIU or to actually relocate to continue my education at the university level. But if it's all at Sauk, I really don't have to do anything. I can kind of just stay where I am."
He says Sauk already has a close relationship with local manufacturing, so it would make sense to build on that with a four-year program.
"The things you're doing in your classes," he said, "are very much what you're going to end up doing on your job. So, it is very focused, very specific."
Jenkins says there are a lot of people in his rural community who want to stay and work these jobs but just don't have the opportunity. And he says employers know that if you leave to go to school at NIU or another university, it's unlikely you'll come back.
Samantha Feather is about to graduate from Sauk Valley's nursing program.
"I think," she said, "that it would be amazing for all of us that are graduating this year — and to come, really."
Feather says most of her classmates are thinking about doing their bachelor's degree online. But this bill would allow them the flexibility to stay in-person with the instructors they trust, while also working the floor at a local hospital.
One of the big selling points of attending community colleges is the lower tuition cost. With that in mind, the legislation limits the costs of the four-year programs. The price can't be more than 150 percent higher than the two-year programs they offer.
The community college bachelor's degree bill is currently in the House Rules Committee. It has more than 50 co-sponsors, including a half dozen Republican lawmakers.
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