Some classes in California public higher education are both required and sometimes impossible-to-get.

And as tuition continues to rise at UC and Cal State campuses, students looking to wrap it up in four years are caught up in a waiting-list world of education.

No longer. Not if Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg has his way:

Today Steinberg announced that he's introducing a bill, SB 520, that would require UC, Cal State and community colleges to offer for-credit, online courses as alternatives to their most popular classes.

His office explained that the law, if it passes, would …

… provide online college courses for credit for the 50 most over-subscribed lower division courses in the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems. The online courses would only be available for students unable to enroll due to space limitations in impacted on-campus classes necessary to complete programs or meet General Education requirements, or to fulfill requirements to transfer from a community college to a four-year institution.

The online courses would have to be reviewed and approved by a nine-member faculty council, the lawmerks' office says.

SB 520 Fact Sheet

Steinberg:

The California Master Plan for Higher Education promised open access to all, yet thousands of students are struggling to complete their degrees and going deeper in college debt because there simply aren't enough classroom seats available in the courses they need,” said Steinberg (D-Sacramento). “We need to tear down these barriers. We want to lead the nation in melding technology with our great institutions of higher learning. No college student in California should be denied the right to move through their education because they couldn't get a seat for the course they needed.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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