Higher Ed | Daily Report

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It's been about six months since California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott signed a controversial deal with Kaplan University that would allow students to take classes from the for-profit company for credit at a community college.

Under the terms of a December 2009 memorandum of understanding, it's up to the individual colleges to sign agreements with the for-profit company to decide which Kaplan courses would be eligible for community-college credits. But so far, not a single college has signed up, a Kaplan spokeswoman said.

When the Kaplan deal was announced, some faculty groups and student advocates questioned it for a number of reasons. For one, students taking the Kaplan classes would pay 10 times as much as they would for the community college class, even after a special discount.

They also questioned the transferability of the Kaplan courses for students who want to eventually attend a UC or CSU campus. The chancellor's agreement with Kaplan states, however, that any deal between the for-profit and an individual college would stipulate that the approved Kaplan courses would be accepted by UC and CSU in lieu of a community college course.

Michelle Pore, spokeswoman for Kaplan, said it's too early to expect colleges to have set up agreements with the for-profit company. Plus, she said Kaplan doesn't really need the extra business. Before the agreement was signed in December, the company already had deals with 75 colleges that allowed community college graduates to transfer to Kaplan.

"We signed this agreement because we saw a need and thought we could help," Pore said in an e-mail to California Watch. "This is not our core business. We thought we could help students get the courses they need to graduate."

That doesn't mean Kaplan hasn't made a bit of an effort. Jane Patton, president of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, said a number of community college officials in the state told her they declined approaches from Kaplan about signing agreements. The Academic Senate has been one of the groups to voice concern about the Kaplan deal.

Terri Carbaugh, spokeswoman for the community college system, said the chancellor hoped the deal would add a layer of protection for students who take Kaplan classes in the hopes of transferring the credits to a community college. She said he was not as worried about how many colleges decide to set up agreements. 

"The reality is many of our students are choosing a private for-profit," she said. "Given that, what is our role and is there a way we can make that choice more successful?"