A Colorado bill that would allow community colleges to offer four-year nursing degrees has run into problems of the gubernatorial type.

House Bill 1086 cleared the Senate Health & Human Services Committee on a 3-2 vote Wednesday, with two Republicans in favor, Sens. Larry Crowder of Alamosa and bill sponsor Jim Smallwood of Parker, along with co-sponsor Democratic Sen. Irene Aguilar of Denver.

But the bill faces the last part of the 33-18-1 challenge – a bill needs 33 votes to pass the 65-member House, 18 to clear the 35-member Senate and finally, the governor’s signature, which represents the one. And that’s the one that the bill doesn’t quite have just yet.

The issue is what’s referred to in higher education circles as mission creep. That’s when a college, two-year or four-year, or university attempts to add programs that some say don’t fit within their original mission.

The community colleges have advocated this session for an opportunity to offer the four-year bachelor of science in nursing program because of heavy demand that isn’t being satisfied by the existing nursing programs at four-year colleges and universities.

There’s also a cost factor. Students in the community college bachelor’s program will pay far less for that four-year degree than the degree would cost at one of the state’s four-year colleges or universities.

Nancy McCallin, president of the Colorado Community College system, told Colorado Politics recently that the bill is not an attempt at mission creep. The nursing degree would clearly follow the community college system mission of addressing workforce issues. “We decided to run this bill because we were requested to meet the needs” of the health care industry, she said.

There were 21,000 job listings for nurses with the bachelor of science degree in 2017, with 80 percent of those openings for entry-level positions. “If there isn’t a workforce shortage here, I don’t know what is,” she said.

Under House Bill 1086, community colleges would offer the four-year bachelor of science in nursing degree. Hospitals are increasingly requiring nurses to hold that degree instead of the two-year degree that leads to the registered nurse certification. The advanced degree includes management and leadership training not available in the two-year program. In addition, a nurse who wants to obtain a graduate degree, necessary in order to teach; or a nurse practitioner degree, must obtain the bachelor’s degree first. All 13 community colleges would have the authority to offer the degree, although not all of them might do it, McCallin said.

The bill came out of discussions between Memorial Hospital of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak Community College.

At the same time, however, officials from the University of Colorado, including the CU School of Nursing and the Anschutz Medical Center, testified against the measure when it was in the House earlier this month.

Two other two-year colleges outside of the community college system already offer the four-year degree program: Colorado Mountain College and the two-year institution operated by Colorado Mesa University.

The community colleges would have to comply with the same accreditation standards as the four-year colleges and universities that already offer those degrees. It will be at least a year before that program will be ready for its first students, McCallin said.

The community colleges agreed to an amendment, offered when the bill went through the House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee, that restricted the students allowed into the program to those already enrolled in the two-year program offered by the community colleges, or those who had graduated from it.

McCallin said that they polled students and alumni from the current two-year program, and 95 percent said they wanted to stay in Colorado and work toward the bachelor of science degree at the community colleges. Those who didn’t go on to the four-year program at the other four-year institutions cited the cost or that those programs are in locations that didn’t work for them.

In addition to the University of Colorado, the bill has drawn opposition from Colorado Mesa University and several private institutions, including Regis University and Colorado Christian University.

Last year, Mesa was backed a law that stripped the authority of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to approve new or modified degree programs. The CCHE is the state’s coordinating body for higher education and is under the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

That measure, Senate Bill 17-297, was sponsored by the Joint Budget Committee and won unanimous approval in the Senate and 54 votes in the House.

But just one year later, those institutions are advocating for a change to House Bill 1086 that would require the community colleges to seek approval from CCHE for just that one program. That amendment failed Wednesday in the Senate committee, not to mention drawing angst from the bill’s sponsors, who basically say, “make up your mind!”

CCHE Chair Luis Colon sent a letter last week to the Senate Health & Human Services Committee, claiming the bachelor of science degree would be the only program not approved by CCHE that falls outside of the community college’s statutory mission. Colon acknowledged that the community colleges have a mission of meeting workforce needs in the letter. But Colon also noted that the community college system has gone through CCHE approval process before for a four-year degree, with a bachelor of applied science degree offered by the community colleges which had to obtain CCHE and legislative approval in 2014. That was before the passage of SB 17-297.

Colon told Colorado Politics that the nursing degree program appears to be attempting an end-run around CCHE authority. “Why couldn’t we follow the same process” as the community colleges did with the applied science degree, Colon asked. “We didn’t lose the authority,” Colon said. And if the degree falls outside the college’s role and mission, the CCHE should be able to review it.

Clarification: Megan McDermott of the CCHE pointed out that community colleges “may offer technical, career, and workforce development bachelor of applied science degree programs” with commission approval. Current role and mission does not include bachelor of science degree programs.

Aguilar told Colorado Politics she’s told the administration that it’s not out of the ordinary for a degree program to go forward without CCHE approval. That was done several years ago with a master’s degree at Red Rocks for physician’s assistants. “If CCHE feels like they should have a voice, they should have a voice in all of it. That should be a separate discussion and a separate bill. It’s a different policy discussion. We’re changing the rules midway through,” and that’s not okay.

Republican Sen. Tim Neville of Littleton also pointed to the 2017 bill that took out CCHE’s authority over approval of degree programs. Neville said the commission is asking for another piece of legislation within House Bill 1086, which he said isn’t proper. “If the community colleges make the decision that this is a program they can offer, they have the demand and the resources, why would we get in the way of that?”

Editor’s note: This article was updated on Feb. 25 to reflect that Memorial Hospital is not operated by UC Health.