Jack Scott’s Kaplan deal: “we were not consulted”

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In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: California's Deal With Kaplan

.....Last fall, the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office announced what some perceived as a partial solution to the budget-related enrollment restrictions that threatened to disrupt the educational plans of many students. Under a memorandum of understanding with Kaplan University, students at certain community colleges would be able to take specific online courses – at a steep discount off the for-profit institution's normal tuition rates, though still paying significantly more than they would at their own college – with the assurance that the credits would transfer back to their home institutions, allowing them to stay on track to earn an associate degree.
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… A standard three-credit online course at Kaplan costs $1,113, and a discounted three-credit course there costs California students $645. By comparison, a three-credit course at a California community college costs a mere $78....
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.....Scott Lay, president of the Community College League of California, ...doubts that the single-course option at Kaplan will appeal to many of the state's community college students.
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.....Lay believes the deal is an unfortunate consequence of the state’s disinvestment in public higher education in recent years. He noted that it was perceived as one of the few options – though not an ideal one – to keep the path to degree completion open for some students.
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.....“I know [Chancellor Jack Scott's] heart was in the right place when he made this agreement, but we’re just not convinced this is the right way to do it,” [Jane Patton, president of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges] said. “The initial concern faculty had with the [memorandum of understanding] was that we were not consulted when it was written....(Continued)

Pictured: Scott with IVC President Glenn Roquemore, Friday