A typical bachelor’s degree at a California State University campus can cost upward of $22,000, and that’s without factoring in the cost of books and fees.

However, California assemblyman Dan Logue has proposed a piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 51, which seeks to cut that price tag by more than 50 percent, potentially making a $10,000 bachelor’s degree a reality for thousands of California students.

However, instead of trying to limit the cost of an education to a certain dollar amount, lawmakers should focus on the bill’s second goal: shortening the length of undergraduate education.

The bill would reduce the traditional four-year undergraduate education to three years by allowing students to effectively fulfill their first-year college requirements with Advanced Placement and community college courses in high school.

Upon graduation from high school, students would head to a junior college before transferring to one of three CSU campuses for the final two years.

The bill specifically targets students planning to study science, technology, engineering and math.

And while AB 51 certainly has an ambitious and positive goal, these extra costs would place an unnecessary burden on the state school system, should it pass.

In order to meet the $10,000 mark, AB 51 would ask the CSU system to cut its tuition by approximately $1,000 a year for those in the program – leaving enough room for students to buy books without exceeding the $5,000-a-year price tag, said Logue.

The CSU would also likely be asked to absorb the students’ fees, Logue said.

These are additional expenses that the CSU simply cannot afford. Given our current state deficit, AB 51 creates an expense that taxpayers likely won’t stand for in the wake of Proposition 30. But there is a way to bypass the bill’s financial strain on the state without sacrificing its noble academic aim.

If, instead, AP credits were accepted in lieu of basic general education courses, students would be partially done with college requirements before matriculating from high school. Students could still graduate in three years, but the university would not be forced to absorb additional costs.

While AB 51 only applies to CSU campuses in its current form, its goal of making college more accessible would certainly benefit the University of California.

The UC administration would do well to explore the possibility of accepting AP credits from high school to count toward general education courses in college, not just the graduation unit count.

UCLA used to have such a policy. Before 2002, UCLA allowed AP credits to count toward general education requirements, said Corey Hollis, director of UCLA’s undergraduate college academic counseling.

Administrators decided to discontinue this practice because they felt that AP coursework was not as rigorous as college-level work, Hollis said.

While AP courses certainly don’t demand the same level of rigor as college-level upper division or major courses, basic biology is still basic biology, regardless of where you take it.

Saving students time and money benefits everyone.

In the current academic framework, AP credits can help UC students in only two ways. AP credits may either fulfill university prerequisites, such as entry-level writing or foreign language requirements, or can be applied to a student’s overall unit count, allowing students with shorter majors the option of graduating early.

It costs the state very little to encourage a reconsideration of the place of AP credit in higher education.

The bill is not without pronounced flaws. Students from more privileged public schools with robust advanced credit offerings would be put at a distinct advantage compared to those whose districts cannot fund as many classes.

Despite this problem, for eligible students, one less year means that students can enter the workforce quickly, an appealing option for many.

Limiting the cost of a college education to a particular dollar amount is unrealistic.

Instead, by focusing on the portions of AB 51 that allow students to apply AP exam credits toward general education requirements, students will spend less money, graduate more quickly and accumulate less debt.

Email Tashman at
atashman@media.ucla.edu or tweet her @alexandra_tash. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu or tweet us @DBOpinion.

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