Today’s New York Times includes an article about a potentially disastrous bill wending its way through the California state legislature.  I’ve written about devaluing the bachelor’s degree before.  If this bill passes, that will become devaluing the bachelor’s degree, fast track edition.  My lovely wife has made numerous insightful comments about this.  Unfortunately I’m very busy this week (and probably next week, too) on a project with a tight deadline.  For now you’ll have to settle for this brief note.

In brief, this law would force public colleges and universities in California to accept transfer credit for online courses.  The courses would be approved by an already-existing panel →→→→→→

Yes, you read that correctly. Nine — nine — faculty members get to make this decision for the rest of us. If anyone can take the time to find out who those nine people are, I would appreciate it.  But there’s one more statement made by State Senator Darrell Steinberg:

“We want to be the first state in the nation to make this promise: No college student in California will be denied the right to move through their education because they couldn’t get a seat in the course they needed,” said Darrell Steinberg, the president pro tem of the Senate, who will introduce the bill. “That’s the motivation for this.”

In other words, students deserve a bachelor’s degree.  They have a “right to move through their education.”  And here I thought the faculty had something to say about who gets a degree and who doesn’t.

Color me nauseous.