Legislature, governor must improve nursing education in California

Nursing candidates in the San José-Evergreen Community College District’s associate degree for nursing program receive the same clinical experience as BA students in four-year universities.

Courtesy: SJECCD

In California, innovation is how we solve problems. We align systems, scale what works, and remove barriers. 

Yet when it comes to preparing the nurses our state urgently needs, California’s higher education system is misaligned, leaving talent untapped and healthcare systems strained. Assembly Bill 2301, authored by Central Valley Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, seeks to address this misalignment.

Consider a typical nursing student at Evergreen Valley College. The student completes a rigorous associate degree in nursing (ADN), earns a registered nurse license, and begins caring for patients in our community. However, employers are increasingly requiring bachelor’s degrees. But when our students try to advance to a BA degree, they encounter a fragmented pathway: limited university capacity, higher costs and logistical hurdles that often force students to pause or abandon their goals. For working adults, caregivers and place-bound students in particular, these are not minor inconveniences, they are real-world barriers.

The challenge we face is not simply a shortage of nurses. It is a mismatch between educational pathways and workforce demand. According to the California Department of Health Care Access and Information, California will need more than 61,000 additional registered nurses by 2033, with shortages affecting most counties. Even in the Bay Area, where overall supply may appear stable, there is a clear gap by education level. Hospitals increasingly need bachelor’s-prepared nurses, yet the system is not producing enough of them.

At the same time, California’s community colleges produce one of the strongest pipelines of associate degree in nursing graduates in the nation. In fact, the California Board of Registered Nursing requires comparable clinical training hours for both associate degree in nursing and bachelor’s degree nursing programs, so our ADN graduates are already prepared to meet the same clinical standards for patient care as graduates with a bachelor’s degree. 

The gap is not in bedside training; it is in access to the additional coursework required for degree advancement. Yet that advancement is constrained by limited university seats and other structural barriers.

Community colleges are not standing still. Institutions like Evergreen Valley College have developed innovative partnerships with universities, allowing students to begin bachelor’s-level coursework while completing their ADN. These models accelerate time to completion, expand access, and better align with employer expectations. But they are inherently limited by university capacity, small cohort sizes and uneven availability across regions. They are a promising workaround, not a scalable solution.

Community colleges seeking to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing are not starting from scratch. Many nursing programs, including the one at Evergreen, are nationally accredited through organizations like the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, and faculty increasingly hold doctoral degrees. The curriculum rigor, clinical partnerships and instructional expertise required for baccalaureate education are already in place.

Allowing California community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing would expand bachelor’s degree attainment without duplicating resources, provide more affordable and local options for students, and better align educational outcomes with workforce needs.

Other states have already embraced this model and seen meaningful gains in workforce alignment and student access. It’s beyond time for California to do the same. Public support for community college bachelor’s degrees in California is strong. What remains is the policy alignment to make it possible. AB 2301 would create a temporary pilot program to allow 10 nationally accredited community college nursing programs in the state to help meet their regional workforce needs by offering bachelor’s degrees in nursing. We call upon the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom to support this bill.

In a state defined by innovation, we should not accept bottlenecks in something as fundamental as healthcare workforce development. The path forward is clear: Align our education system with workforce realities and empower community colleges to help meet one of our most urgent workforce needs.

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Tony Alexander chairs the San José-Evergreen Community College District’s board committee on external affairs. Maria Fuentes and Marsha Grilli are members of the external affairs committee. The district serves more than 30,000 students each year at San José City College, Evergreen Valley College and the SJCC Milpitas College Extension.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view.