Secondly, on that same agenda is a proposed ban on cellphones in “all public and charter school classes,” reported the Chicago Sun Times, and there are pending bills in both chambers of the statehouse, for the spring session.
It’s no secret that education is the path forward for many aspiring to the middle class, and the lack of that type of degree could be a hindrance in that progress; even allowing that the two year degree is advantageous in some areas, but as the workforce in America requires education beyond that, Pritzker’s proposal does have merit.
Banning cellphones in the classroom may be the harder lift for the governor, as anyone who has school age children, especially teenagers, know that they are tethered to their phones, night and day; along with their parents, and while it does have educational components, there are areas of concern: bullying using social media, text messages demanding attention away from the instructor, and losing interaction with other students.
Pritzker wants school leadership to come up with a plan that creates policies that ban them, but with some allowances for special education students, “health concerns or who are learning English could still use them when necessary, “said the Sun Times.
Taking a look at the community college proposal, this to perhaps many readers many come as a surprise, and also to learn that, “There are 24 states across the country that have this type of policy in place, including Indiana, Missouri and Michigan just in the Midwest,” said the Martin Torres, Pritzker’s deputy governor for education, in his interview with Capitol News Illinois, adding that the schools themselves have advocated for.
In identifying those high need areas, Torres also noted that there are 200 community colleges across the country who are doing this today,”
Areas of need include health care, early childhood education, and manufacturing, a few examples that he cited in the interview.
Approval would be required by the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board.
"Expanding baccalaureate degree programs at community colleges increases access to affordable higher education, allowing more students to earn four-year degrees without the burden of excessive debt. This approach also helps meet workforce demands by equipping graduates with the skills needed in high-demand fields, ultimately strengthening local economies and communities," said Illinois Community College Board Executive Director Brian Durham. "
Tuition would be capped by the proposal at no “more than 150 % of their regular tuition for the third and fourth years of a four year program, making toi a real benefit to students who are older, needing to work, and “have personal logistics and circumstances that just don’t allow for them to up and move to wherever a four year public university may be,” added Torres.
“This is about access and opportunity,” said State Representative Katz Muhl. “Seventy-eight percent of community college students work while in school, making relocation impractical. By allowing community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees, we’re giving more Illinoisans a real chance at upward mobility while strengthening the local workforce. I’m proud to support this initiative that puts students and communities first.”
Of these, the governor said, “By allowing our community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees for in-demand career paths, we are making it easier and more affordable for students—particularly working adults in rural communities—to advance their careers while strengthening our state’s economy.”
It is important to note that In other remarks, Muhl added that 78% of community college students work, and that work is often in the communities they would study in and furthermore as Dr. Keith Cornille, President of Heartland Community College, said, they also “raise families hee, and contribute to the local community,” and through this expansion, “we’re meeting students where they are.”
Support for this, and giving a major push is “The Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA) [which] advocates for policies that strengthen community colleges and expand opportunities for students.”
And, as “the primary organization spearheading this initiative, ICCTA works closely with state legislators, education leaders, and industry partners to advance workforce-aligned degree pathways.”
More importantly it is not known how public universities across Illinois might react, and the ball is in the court of the community colleges to decide how to pay “for any additional costs associated with the programs.”
Seeing successful efforts across the country seems to have bolstered Pritzker, and research shows that more than 24 community colleges across the country have done so, and specifically in such fields as health care, nursing, in particular, nut also information management, business and economics as well as traditional fields such as college instruction in English.
In a recent blog post from Georgetown University, The Feed, they noted that, “Students in California are no longer restricted to four-year institutions to pursue a bachelor’s degree, as an increasing number of the state’s 116 community colleges are offering four-year programs in specialized, high-demand fields, including dental hygiene, bio-manufacturing, and automotive technology, The Los Angeles Times reports. The relative affordability of community college bachelor’s degrees taps into a student population that otherwise wouldn’t attend a four-year college, experts say.
“If [students] want to do a bachelor’s degree, we should not have barriers. Period,” Sonya Christian, the chancellor of the California Community Colleges, tells the LA Times.
The move gained momentum and we have seen that,”Since 2014, California’s community colleges have offered four-year degrees through the Community College Baccalaureate Degree Program (CCB), which aims to provide accessible, affordable, and practical high-quality degrees to community college students. A 2021 law made the program permanent, allowing the state to approve up to 30 bachelor’s degree programs each academic year, as long as they do not duplicate those offered by the California State University and University of California systems. A total of 31 baccalaureate programs across 27 community colleges are either currently available to students or have been approved and will soon be offered, EdSource reports. Nationally, CCB degrees are now offered in 23 states and across 121 institutions, according to the Community College Baccalaureate Association.”
There is evidence, however, that there needs to be greater uniformity to ensure success for those students, and the CCBA has said in its 2023 report, supporting the effort, but did issue a cautionary note: “However, to date, there is no unified set of quality standards for community colleges seeking to confer baccalaureate degrees. Filling this void is critical due to the rapid expansion of CCB programs in the United States,” and added, “Further, CCB-conferring colleges need to demonstrate how these new pathways produce more equitable baccalaureate attainment outcomes for all student groups.
There may also be some bias against these institutions by some employers coupled with a bias towards students that are not traditionally aged learners.
Cost of course is a motivating factor in the Pritzker proposal and CCB did offer these considerations:
“Keeping the cost of college modest enough to enable students with limited socioeconomic resources to attend is an important goal of many CCB programs. Most states with CCB degree programs intentionally set tuition and fees for CCB degree programs at levels comparable to the tuition costs of other programs in the community college. There are three predominant tuition rate policies for CCB degree programs. First, community colleges set the upper division tuition rate at the same or very similar to lower division tuition, thereby keeping the tuition rate in the last two years consistent with the first two years of community college. This approach is used by states like Florida, Ohio, Oregon, and Wyoming.
They also cited that there is “A third approach is used in Washington, where the upper division tuition rate is set at a similar level as the state’s regional public universities, with the idea being students securing the upper division bachelor’s instruction should pay a similar rate regardless of whether they attend a regional public university or community college. This policy was adopted when the first CCB legislation was passed in Washington in 2005 when tuition rates were lower across the board. Washington is also a state with a community college tuition policy that allows students to move between community colleges without paying in and out of district tuition, giving students a great deal of flexibility of college attendance. Therefore, while the Washington tuition policy reflects a higher level of tuition and fees for CCB degree programs than in other states, the high level of competition among community colleges may help keep tuition rates competitive at both the associates and bachelor’s levels.”
Looking at the second Pritzker proposal that there should be a phone ban in all Illinois public and charter schools, has been met with a mixed bag of reactions, with some praising the governor, and even citing instances where there are bans has had some feeling that the focus on student and teacher interaction has been a gainsay, according to coverage in the Sun Times, but others have said, citing high schoolers that as the old adage states, where there's a will there's a way.
“If someone doesn’t want to do their work, they’re going to find a way not to do it,” said Esmerealda Oroczo, a senior at Farragut Center Academy in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood where students are not “allowed to carry their cellphones in school.”
Some schools, in their bans, require students to put their phones in a locked bag, that only a teacher or administrator can open, but yet many students place a “burner” or prepaid phone in the bag, hiding their contract phones; and, these are smartphones that can access the internet and have camera and photo capabilities, plus the ubiquitous text messaging; and, all of which can be used to cyber bully other students and the dreaded sexting.
The story also cited a Pew Research study that said 72% of teachers said that students with access to phones was a “major problem”, yet despite some noting the positive results, one teacher’s assistant told us that taking a student’s phone away exposed her later to an angry parent, who told her, ‘I paid for the damn phone, give it back.”
For many students with care duties for younger relatives, living in, or attending schools in dangerous neighborhoods, phone access is a necessity, which leads to many exceptions, and discussions in the statehouse when these proposals are in committee.
Actions have consequences and Pritzker has said that enforcement might include fines, tickets or police actions.
Looking abroad, at about the same time that the governor made his proposal, Denmark, according to the BBC, said that they would have a similar ban, from their education minister, based on a government task force recommendation, “is set to ban smartphones in schools and after school clubs.”
While the details have not yet been released by their government, Mattias Tesfoye, Minister for Children and Education, said the ban would entail, “mobile phones and personal tablets will not be allowed at school, neither during break times nor during lessons.”
Preceding the Danish ban, the BBC noted it was based on “recommendations from a youth wellbeing commission,” to restrict “the use of smartphones to those aged 13 and older.”
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