By Andrea Kelly
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, April 6, 2005
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PHOENIX - A bill aimed at making higher education more accessible and more affordable was killed in an Arizona State Senate committee yesterday.
The bill, which would have allowed community colleges to offer a few baccalaureate degrees and changed the funding levels of universities, among other things, was not supported by the three state universities or the Arizona Board of Regents.
On the other hand, community colleges across the state and many professional organizations supported the bill for its ability to offer more higher education choices at a lower cost, especially for citizens in rural counties without as much access to the three state universities.
An important factor in the 6-5 vote to stop the bill in its tracks was the suggestion by representatives of the UA and the board of regents to first create a study team to analyze what aspects of higher education needed to be reformed.
"These are major issues that could have a major impact (on the state)," said Greg Fahey, UA lobbyist.
Fahey told the Senate Appropriations Committee that without a preexisting study to look at the gaps in higher education and come up with a proposal to solve them, the bill was essentially pre-emptive.
Don Isaacson, a lobbyist for the University of Phoenix, said no state has even come close to passing such broad legislation for higher education.
The bill, HB2079, would have allowed some community colleges in the state to offer four-year baccalaureate degrees in nursing, among other degrees. Nursing students have attended many of the committee hearings of this bill, always in support of more opportunity for nursing education in the state.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Laura Knaperek, R-Tempe, said she may try to revive the bill in another form before the end of this legislative session, but if so, it would "definitely" be less ambitious.
The bill had already passed the full House of Representatives and only needed to pass yesterday's vote to be considered by the full Senate.
