Nearly three years ago, our community rallied together to help save City College of San Francisco (CCSF) after the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) sought to shut it down.
Despite the financial and governance challenges it has faced in recent years, the overall impact of CCSF to its students, to the community, and to the social and economic fabric of San Francisco is incalculable. Everyday San Franciscans see the value of CCSF with its various campuses citywide, especially thriving culturally specific locations like the Mission and Chinatown campuses.
The actions of the ACCJC and its decision to revoke CCSF’s accreditation, the largest public school in the state, was met with a lawsuit from our City Attorney Dennis Herrera and a visit from the California State Auditor. Allegations against the ACCJC—major conflicts of interest, misinterpretation of federal policies and a general lack of transparency during the accreditation process—were too significant to ignore.
The CCSF situation highlighted the need to hold accrediting agencies accountable. While the state rightfully requires community colleges to be accredited, our federal government is responsible for reviewing and recognizing the agencies that serve as accreditors.
To address this issue, I introduced Assembly Bill 404, which addresses accountability by integrating community feedback into the accrediting agencies’ review process. AB 404 will serve as an integral part of the fight to save CCSF by giving stakeholders, faculty, and students a voice during the accreditation process via anonymous feedback without fear of repercussion. As we have seen, the accreditation process has a significant impact on community colleges, and we must ensure that accrediting agencies are acting in the best interests of our community.
The tremendous impact our community college system and for-profit colleges have on our state was recently highlighted with the abrupt closure of Corinthian Colleges, which displaced thousands of students and left them with nothing but unanswered questions and debt.
To bring some relief to these students, I am co-authoring Assembly Bill 573, which will ensure California students impacted by closures of for-profit and private schools have access to economic relief as well as educational opportunities.
The closure of the Corinthian system showed just how vital CCSF is as a resource for our city and Latino, Asian and other diverse communities. CCSF took the initiative to help Corinthian students in need, providing counselors to help students with transferable credits, financial aid, and other services. CCSF was able to step up and provide assistance to those displaced students because it is open and accredited. We need to keep it that way.
AB 404 will make strides to ensure fair accreditation, increased transparency and better communication that will help keep our community colleges thriving for generations to come. I am pleased to say AB 404 has received overwhelming support as it was passed by the State Assembly, and it is now headed to its first policy committee in the Senate.
If you can support our efforts to pass AB 404 or you were affected by the Corinthian College closures and need assistance, please contact my office at (415) 557-3013 or email us at assemblymember.chiu@asm.ca.gov.
David Chiu is an Assemblymember representing eastern San Francisco.