Should Community Colleges Offer Four-Year Degrees?

More junior colleges are offering four-year bachelor’s degrees in addition to two-year associate’s degrees, and traditional universities hate the competition. But while students and policymakers should welcome new options, junior colleges (also known as community colleges) have obstacles to overcome as they attempt to create reliable alternatives to four-year institutions.

Over the last two decades, lawmakers in at least 24 states have adopted provisions allowing community colleges to expand their degree offerings to include four-year bachelor’s programs. Customarily, community colleges offer high-school graduates who are not prepared for four-year degree programs the chance to earn two-year associate’s degrees and offer high-school students the opportunity to earn college credit before graduating (called “dual enrollment”).

Lawmakers in at least 24 states have adopted provisions allowing community colleges to offer four-year bachelor’s programs. Obviously these are different goals than those of traditional universities that enroll students aiming to complete a four-year degree. Correspondingly, the two types of postsecondary institutions—junior colleges and traditional universities—attract different types of students.

Community-college students are older (27 years old, on average), while most college students fall within the age range of 18-24. Community-college tuition is typically less expensive than tuition at four-year institutions, so a larger share of the students in junior colleges come from lower-income households than do students enrolled at four-year institutions.

Junior colleges have obstacles to overcome as they attempt to create reliable alternatives to four-year institutions. Therein lies the appeal for community colleges to offer bachelor’s degree programs. It only makes sense for students with fewer resources, who are perhaps already participating in the workforce, to pay lower annual tuition costs and earn a four-year degree without having to transfer from a community college to a four-year college, find housing, and pay the additional expenses of a traditional institution.

Some who advocate for expanding the menu at community colleges also argue that many community-college students live in “education deserts,” areas without ready access to four-year schools. An American Council on Education report found that the average student at a junior college attends school within 31 miles of his or her home, while the average student at a four-year school attends college within 258 miles of his or her home. The authors hypothesize that community-college students attend schools nearby because either no other options exist or they cannot afford to move far from their existing homes and jobs.

According to reports from NPR, along with those from research organizations such as the Education Commission of the States and other media outlets, four-year colleges and universities are organizing against the expansion of community-college offerings. NPR reports that community colleges in California have been offering four-year degrees since 2021, but state universities have successfully blocked junior colleges from offering four-year degrees in academic areas for which the state university system also has degree programs.

A similar situation developed in Ohio in 2018. Youngstown State University blocked a local community college from offering four-year degrees in academic areas Youngstown State also covers. One state legislator in favor of junior-college expansion said the university’s opposition amounted to “turf war and nothing else.”

Four-year colleges and universities would do well to expand their network of friends and find ways to capitalize on the market of community-college students interested in earning four-year degrees. Universities could offer students expedited transfers and discounted tuition and then tout their stronger job-placement offerings, for example. As I discuss in my book The Polarization Myth: America’s Surprising Consensus on Race, Schools, and Sex, surveys find that Americans’ confidence in higher education has dropped from 57 percent in 2015 to 36 percent in 2023.

State and federal lawmakers are no longer cowed by the higher-ed lobby and have finally begun enforcing civil-rights laws, prohibiting the use of taxpayer spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion offices. Lawmakers are rooting out racism and antisemitism on campuses, both of which are altogether too prevalent—another mark against universities. Furthermore, demographic forecasts spell an enrollment drought, so four-year institutions will need the favor of taxpayers and policymakers, as well as students, to weather the coming changes.

There are more legitimate concerns with the expansion of community-college programming than just the envy of university administrators. Still, there are more legitimate concerns with the expansion of community-college programming than just the envy of university administrators. First, junior colleges themselves are not immune to biased instruction and radical operations such as DEI and LGBTQ offices that bring drag queens to campus. My 2023 survey of community colleges found that 81 percent had either DEI departments, staff, task forces, mission statements, or other programs.

Before lawmakers allow these schools to expand their services, they should require commitments that junior-college administrators cease all such operations. Community-college officials should prepare for the same scrutiny of racist, radical-left-wing operations that four-year institutions have undergone.

Just because community colleges offer a new degree program does not mean the enrolled student will learn what he needs to be effective in the workforce. Second, community colleges have poor outcomes. Half of junior-college students who enroll in a degree program do not complete the degree, and only 43 percent of students finish a degree within six years of enrolling. Public and private four-year institutions both have six-year completion rates higher than 70 percent, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.

If lawmakers intend to expand junior colleges—as those in Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, and other states have done or considered in recent years—they should raise expectations. Junior-college completion rates are abysmal and should not give taxpayers confidence that enough rigor is being applied. Just because community colleges offer a new degree program does not mean the enrolled student will learn what he or she needs to be effective in the workforce.

In Texas, a community college is partnering with a Texas A&M campus to expand its four-year degree offerings. Partnerships such as this should both help solve the turf-war issues described here and offer reassurance that the community-college program will be at least as good as the local university offering.

Finally, as lawmakers pursue these expanded degree programs, they should ask if there is demand among employers. One Iowa representative told NPR the new degrees would “upskill our workforce,” which may be true, but lawmakers should demonstrate to taxpayers that they have heard statements such as this from employers. Sure, in theory, higher levels of education benefit students. In practice, 52 percent of college graduates are underemployed today, according to research from the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

If lawmakers are to pursue expanding community-college offerings, then policymakers should receive assurances from junior colleges that they are committed to high standards, that there is demand from local employers, and that they are removing the ideological conformity that has so plagued traditional institutions. At that point, policymakers and students should welcome the competition with four-year universities.

Jonathan Butcher is the Will Skillman Senior Research Fellow in Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation and the author of Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth.