Don’t Let Perfect Be the Enemy of Good — But Don’t Stop at Good [Opinion]

PALM DESERT —I was once given a piece of advice that has stayed with me throughout my career: Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

It is a useful reminder that progress rarely arrives all at once. Meaningful change is often incremental. We move forward, learn from what we have accomplished, and then ask what more needs to be done.

That is how I view the recent signing of AB 2694 and SB 960, two important pieces of legislation that move California forward in expanding the ability of community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees. Governor Gavin Newsom and the Legislature deserve recognition for taking this step. These measures reflect a growing understanding of something community college leaders have been saying for years: geography should not determine opportunity, and California cannot address its workforce needs if we unnecessarily restrict the institutions that are often best positioned to respond to them.

For College of the Desert and other California Community Colleges, that principle is particularly important. We serve a geographically expansive region with communities that are very different from those surrounding many traditional four-year universities. Our students are working adults, first-generation college students, parents and individuals for whom relocating or commuting long distances to complete a bachelor’s degree simply may not be realistic.

Community colleges were created to meet students where they are. Increasingly, that must include the baccalaureate degree.

The California Community Colleges already offer bachelor’s degrees designed to provide affordable pathways into careers where regional workforce demand exists. The Chancellor’s Office describes these programs as a way to expand employment opportunities while making four-year degrees more accessible and affordable.

The new legislation recognizes that the old approach to determining whether a community college could offer a bachelor’s degree needed to evolve. AB 2694, for example, moves the conversation toward whether programs are “substantially similar” within a geographic region and recognizes circumstances involving unmet regional workforce needs.

That is progress. But good legislation should be a foundation, not a finish line.

California should now continue the conversation about the larger question underlying community college baccalaureate degrees: Why shouldn’t the California Community Colleges have greater authority to determine how best to meet the educational and workforce needs of the communities we were created to serve?

California has entrusted its community colleges with an extraordinary responsibility. We serve more than two million students and are central to the state’s workforce and economic mobility strategies. Yet when it comes to developing bachelor’s degrees, our system continues to operate within restrictions and approval structures involving California’s other public higher education segments.

Collaboration among the California Community Colleges, California State University and University of California is important. Each system plays a critical role in California’s higher education ecosystem. Expanding the role of community colleges should not be viewed as diminishing the role of our university partners. But collaboration and autonomy are not mutually exclusive.

The question should not be whether another institution somewhere offers a degree with a similar name. The better questions are: Can students in this community reasonably access that program? Is the existing capacity sufficient? Are employers able to find the skilled workers they need? And can a community college provide a high-quality, affordable pathway that expands opportunity without unnecessarily replicating existing capacity?

Those questions put students and communities at the center of the discussion. That is where they belong.

The next phase of this work should bring the Legislature and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office together to examine how the law operates in practice and determine where additional flexibility is warranted. The goal should be a framework that provides the community college system with greater authority to respond to student, and workforce needs while maintaining appropriate standards for quality, accountability, and responsible stewardship.

At College of the Desert, we see this need firsthand.

The Coachella Valley is growing and changing. Hospitality and tourism, health care, advanced transportation, technology, and other industries are evolving rapidly. Our responsibility is not only to prepare students for the jobs that exist today. We must anticipate the education and skills our region will need tomorrow.

Sometimes that requires a certificate. Sometimes an associate degree. And increasingly, it requires a bachelor’s degree. Our students should not have to leave their communities because the educational system has not evolved as quickly as the economy around them. AB 2694 and SB 960 move California in the right direction. We should acknowledge the legislators, the Governor, the Chancellor’s Office, community college advocates, and others who worked to advance these changes. And then we should keep working.

California built the nation’s largest community college system around the idea that higher education should be accessible to everyone, regardless of ZIP code, income or circumstance. The next evolution of that promise is ensuring that the degree a student needs is accessible as well. So, yes, we should not let perfect become the enemy of good. But neither should we allow good to become the enemy of better.

The legislation signed this year represents important progress. Now California has an opportunity to build upon it by giving its community colleges greater autonomy, trusting local and statewide community college leaders to respond responsibly to workforce demand, and continuing to remove unnecessary barriers between students and opportunity.

Our students are ready. Our communities are ready. And College of the Desert is ready.