Iowa lawmaker to introduce legislation allowing community college bachelor’s degrees

IOWA CITY — After a lawmaker-commissioned study this week found a need to start offering four-year bachelor’s degrees across Iowa’s 15 community colleges, Rep. Taylor Collins on Friday said he plans to introduce legislation next year to make it happen.

“One hundred percent — I will be introducing legislation to authorize this,” Collins, R-Mediapolis, told The Gazette in reference the study made public Thursday by Community Colleges for Iowa, a nonprofit advocacy association for the state’s independent public community colleges.

“Workforce shortages, regional educational deserts, and affordability barriers are leaving too many Iowans without pathways to high-demand careers,” according to the study’s final report.

Citing lessons from the 24 U.S. states already allowing community and technical colleges to confer bachelor’s degrees, the report found reason to expect doing the same in Iowa could result in employment and wage gains, improved higher education access for low-income and rural Iowans, and economic benefit across the workforce.

“With thoughtful planning around tuition models, faculty support, state appropriations, and accreditation processes, Iowa may be able to replicate these successes,” the report said of other states. “Authorizing community college baccalaureate programs would not only strengthen the state’s talent pipeline but also ensure that all Iowans, especially those in rural and underserved communities, can pursue meaningful, affordable, and career-aligned higher education close to home.”

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Iowa Code created the state’s community colleges in 1965, defining them as publicly-supported schools offering adult and continuing education programs, lifelong learning, community education, and “up to two years of liberal arts, preprofessional, or occupational instruction partially fulfilling the requirements for a baccalaureate degree but conferring no more than an associate degree.”

Collins — who chairs the Iowa House of Representatives Higher Education Committee — during the last Legislative session in January commissioned Iowa’s community colleges to investigate the feasibility to expanding their Iowa Code definition to include four-year bachelor’s degrees.

His letter commissioning the study imposed a May deadline for an interim report, with the final report due Oct. 31. Community Colleges for Iowa produced its capstone findings nearly a month early Thursday, recommending — among other things — a “onetime appropriation of $20 million to be allocated over five years.”

“These funds would serve as seed grants to assist institutions in developing new programs, ensuring that resources are available for faculty, facilities, and student support services,” according to the final report. “While we are not recommending a new source of ongoing funding at this time, robust state general aid will be key to keeping these programs affordable and accessible.”

‘Differentiated tuition’

Highlighting existing limitations on community college tuition in Iowa Code — which dictates the highest rate charged by the campuses must be less than the lowest tuition charged by Iowa’s public universities — the report also urged tuition restructuring.

“Community colleges should be permitted to set differentiated tuition rates for upper-division courses designated as bachelor’s level courses, with the requirement that such tuition not exceed 150 percent of the institution’s existing lower-division tuition rate,” according to the study. “This approach balances program sustainability with affordability for students.”

The report suggested lawmakers authorize all 15 campuses to confer bachelor’s degrees, but leave specific programming and timeline details to locally-elected community college boards.

Given the infrastructure needed to build up community college bachelor’s programs — from faculty resources to facility space to curriculum development — the report suggested fall 2028 as the earliest any new program could be implemented.

“No additional layer of state-level accreditation should be required, thereby streamlining implementation while maintaining rigorous academic and quality standards,” according to the report, which also offered two metrics for success.

Although about 63 percent of Iowa’s current community college instructors already meet the qualifications to teach at the bachelor’s level, most are maxed out in the number of hours they’re teaching.

“Some policy adjustments would be needed, especially for career and technical education faculty, to address workload capacity concerns and ensure recruitment of qualified faculty is possible,” according to the report, citing a need for more lab and clinical space and advanced technology.

“Overall, Iowa’s community colleges have some of the academic capacity and infrastructure necessary to offer bachelor’s programs, but thoughtful funding models and policy changes would be necessary.”

Success of community college bachelor’s programming should be measured through outcome-driven indicators including graduate employment outcomes, like job placement rates and postgraduation earnings; and statewide impact, like its educational attainment goals, workforce participation, and graduate retention.

‘Not really competing’

Although Iowa already has three public universities and more than 30 private colleges and universities offering four-year bachelor’s degrees, the community college study still uncovered education gaps — particularly in rural Iowa and in high-demand fields.

“Certain regions in Iowa are classified as ‘education deserts,’ areas with limited local access to higher education institutions, particularly public four-year options,” according to the report. “These regions create significant barriers for residents seeking affordable, accessible pathways to a bachelor’s degree, often forcing students to relocate or commute long distances, both of which come with additional financial burdens.”

Those who don’t want to move or commute often end up skipping a secondary degree and jumping straight into the workforce — where they end up earning less than they could with a bachelor’s.

“Having advised this type student for a long time … usually what you're competing against is their decision to do nothing at all,” Amy Gieseke, community college and postsecondary readiness section chief for the Iowa Department of Education, said during a panel discussion at The Gazette’s Iowa Ideas conference on Friday.

“You're not really competing against other institutions,” she said. “You're creating a new option that allows them to do something, where otherwise they just won't go on.”

Emily Shields, executive director of Community Colleges for Iowa, corroborated that in their research — which involved meeting with students across the state.

“I was in Muscatine with some students there several months ago talking about this, and all of them — all of the six students that we talked to — aren't planning to get a bachelor's degree right now, but would if their local community college offered that,” Shields said. “And it's not that they're super far from other four year colleges and universities in that area. They're just very rooted in their community for a variety of reasons and not able or interested in leaving even to go 30 minutes.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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