Higher Ed | Daily Report

Faced with tight budgets and fewer course offerings, the California Community Colleges unveiled a new partnership this week, which will allow students to take some online courses from a for-profit university and count them toward their associate's degree requirements.

Under the plan, each individual community college will approve certain online Kaplan University courses for credit. Students who sign up for the Kaplan University Community College Connection program get a 42 percent tuition discount on the Kaplan courses.

It's the first time Kaplan has offered community college students an opportunity to take single courses that will count towards an associate's degree.

But as the College Guide blog at Washington Monthly points out, even a significant discount at Kaplan doesn't match up to the price tag of a community college course, which by comparison is a bargain-basement steal.

Five credits at the community colleges would run about $100, while a typical five-credit Kaplan University course costs about $1,855, according to Kaplan spokeswoman Michele Pore.

That means that even with the discount, community college students would pay about $1,075 per Kaplan course. That's one class for the price of 10 at a community college. Or one class for the price of four semesters. You get the picture.

Pore said the agreement gives struggling students more freedom to pursue their degrees.

"We offer customizable, flexible course options being that we're online, Pore said. "It allows California students who might be affected (by the state's budget cuts) to continue pursuing their goals."

But Debbie Cochrane, program director at the Institute for College Access and Success, said the agreement is essentially an acknowledgement by the community college system that students who are supposed to be guaranteed an affordable spot in college aren't getting the classes they need at the public college they turn to. The colleges are basically telling students to go elsewhere and pay a premium, she said.

Cochrane raised questions about the Kaplan agreement in a blog post.

"It's a surprising decision coming from a college system that has previously been reluctant to raise fees by even a dollar or two," Cochrane said in an interview.

How does financial aid figure into this? Students can only receive federal financial aid for one college at a time, so people who sign up for the Community College Connection will have to decide whether it makes sense to apply for aid through Kaplan or through their home colleges, Pore said.

The choice probably wouldn't have a big impact on community colleges. If a student is eligible for a Pell grant, she's also eligible for a community college fee waiver, so the college wouldn't get any of the grant funds anyway.

The federal aid goes to pay for other things, such as a student's books, transportation and living costs.

But Kaplan could certainly stand to benefit. There's been a lot of media coverage lately about how the for-profit sector has been able to reap the benefits of increased federal aid for low-income students. The agreement with California community colleges could further that trend.