One California fully online community college is facing backlash and an imminent shut down after a state lawmaker called out the establishment’s priorities after finding out that only 12 of its more than 900 students graduated in its first year and more than 40% of the students dropped out.
The community college under fire was identified to be Calbright College and called out by Elaine Howle on Tuesday, Assemblyman Hose Medina requested for the audit after the community college faculty leaders requested it, saying the college has failed.
Excessive Salaries
“The Legislature must end the Calbright College experiment,” Medina said. Medina and Assemblyman Evan Low are supporting a bill that would force the school to shut down at the end of its 2022-2023 academic year.
Calbright first opened its doors to students in 2019 and gave higher salaries to its executives compared to any other community college in California. Officials said the school is expected to receive more than $175 million worth of funds from taxes until 2025.
Howle said they discovered Calbright had “poor management” where executives did not plan how the school would use its fundings. He also said Calbright continued providing excessive salaries despite the majority of its high-priced leaders being gone.
The president of Calbright’s board of trustees, Pamela Haynes, said the school had many mistakes during its early years but reassured that they have since corrected the problems, the Associated Press reported.
