Lawmakers want to investigate Calbright College’s operations and finances
State lawmakers voted unanimously Wednesday to audit Calbright College, California’s online-only community college, just five months into its existence.
The 14-0 vote by the Joint Committee on Legislative Audit signals that critics from the college’s faculty union have succeeded in raising doubts among lawmakers about whether the state needs a separate, online-only community college. The committee has the authority to approve state audits.
The audit will get underway after July 1 and could take about seven months to complete. Lawmakers want the audit to examine whether Calbright is serving the students it was created for, whether the college’s classes too closely resemble courses offered at other community colleges and whether it has complied with state law. It also will look into the college’s finances, salaries and expenses to see if it has appropriately used state money.
The audit is estimated to cost the state $375,180.
“I do realize they’ve been in operation for perhaps a short amount of time, but it’s in the interest of the Legislature to very much know how they’re doing,” said Assemblymember Jose Medina, chair of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education. “We don’t want to spend a long time going down the wrong path.”