Longtime Humboldt County fisherman Ron Sturm, who lived most his life in Fairhaven, passed away on August 13, 2024 in Eureka. Ron was a commerical fisherman and worked on many boats in the bay and up and down the West Coast. Ron was a crabber. Ron long-lined for black cod and dragged for bottom fish. Ron trolled for both salmon and tuna, and also fished for swordfish. Ron was a good addition on any deck and a great storyteller and a great friend. Ron was a US Marine veteran and was very talented. He knew how to sing and play his guitar.

He was preceded in death by his parents Sharril W. Sturm and Rosella Sturm and brothers Ross Sturm and Eddie Sturm, all from Fairhaven. Ron is survived by his daughters, Heather Sturm and Veronica Sturm; three sisters, Sharylin Roberts and husband Clarence and niece Eva Mills; sister Shelly Hernandez and her husband David; and Lori Genelly and husband Robert and nephew Ian; niece Amii Orton and nephew Andrew Benson; and numerous other nieces and nephews. Ron’s ashes will be spread by friends in the fishing grounds where he spent much of his life.

Rest in peace, brother.

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Katherine Longshore vividly remembers when Sharlya Gold, a children’s book author, visited her class at Bloomfield School in 1981. At the time, Longshore and her peers were making their own story books, stapled together and illustrated by hand. Gold, who was participating in the Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival, wrote a note in Longshore’s project: “I hope you enjoy writing your own books.”

“I still have the book,” Longshore said in a recent interview with the Outpost. “It really stuck with me – that this is something that people actually do. People actually write the books that are the stories that I love to read.” 

Longshore eventually published a young adult novel herself and returned to the festival as an author. She visited Arcata High and McKinleyville Middle, where Longshore led a small workshop with students who were interested in writing. 

“It was like the highlight of my career, to feel like it kind of came full circle,” Longshore said. Now, she is a member of the Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival committee and serves as its communications person, working to connect authors from around the nation to Humboldt’s youngest readers – even those in the most rural corners of the county. 

Every other year, the festival brings 25 authors from far and wide to as many Humboldt students as possible. Each author travels around the area to visit two or three schools, where they lead writing workshops, teach art classes, play music or simply talk about their book with the students. Afterwards, all 25 authors gather for a public book sale and signing celebration at the Humboldt County Main Library in Eureka. 

For the festival’s 50th anniversary this year, the writers will visit 59 schools in total, on Oct. 17 and 18, then convene at the Humboldt County Main Library in Eureka on Saturday, Oct. 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. See who’s who here, and where they are going here.

As it turns out, being a children’s book author is a darn cool job. Many full-time children’s authors spend half their time considering what it’s like to live as a child and the other half meeting actual children. Because writing children’s books isn’t usually a profitable job, some authors supplement their income via school visits. Those can cost a school hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on who the author is and where they are going. 

But the Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival is different. Something about it inspires authors to visit for free.

“Our festival is unique,” Longshore said. “As far as we know, there are no other children’s author festivals that operate this way in the entire country.”

There are a few things that make it special. 

“One of the things that I really like – I do a lot of speaking – and one thing that’s very different about speaking in Humboldt is that I get to speak to these tiny schools out in the middle of nowhere,” said Gennifer Choldenko, a veteran author of the festival who is returning this year.

The festival is also unusual because it is entirely volunteer-powered – from the organizers to the authors, no one gets paid – and it has survived a remarkably long time. [CORRECTION: The authors do get a small honorarium, funded by a grant from the Humboldt Area Foundation.]

“Places will try to do it, and it lasts maybe three years and then collapses,” said Wendelin Van Draanen, an author who is new to Humboldt’s festival this year but has been visiting schools for more than two decades. “So 50 years is extraordinary.” 

It’s a big undertaking. Planning the whole thing – from securing travel and lodging, to selecting the authors, to coordinating with schools – takes the full two years in between each festival, Longshore said. But the event has drummed up more and more popularity over the years, drawing donations, sponsorships and support from dozens of local businesses, nonprofits and community members. Though the authors aren’t paid for the school visits, their travel expenses and accommodations are covered. 

Over the years, the festival has brought no shortage of whimsy and joy to the county. Linda Lorvig, a coordinator who has been involved with the event for more than 30 years, recalled some of her favorite memories of the festival during a recent phone call. There was the time Bruce Hale, an author whose books sometimes concern insects, visited Kneeland School and the superintendent pranked him by setting out edible bugs for lunch with the students. 

“He grabbed all of the different bugs and put them on his plate, sat down and ate the bugs, and kept commenting: “crunch, crunch, ooh, these are just like popcorn!” Lorvig recalled. “The kids just sat there, I guess, in awe of an author that would do that.” Some kids ended up trying the bugs, too.

There are the legacy authors, like Robert D. San Souci, who used to write a thoughtful inscription in every book he signed. The line at his table was always long, Lorvig said, and San Souci often stayed to autograph books long after the event was over. He almost missed a plane because of it once. 

“He was a wonderful man. He loved coming here to see us,” Lorvig said of the author, who passed away in 2014. “He said we were his family up here.” 

Perhaps that’s why the festival has survived for half a century; it’s become a celebrated piece of Humboldt’s community, which knows how to show the authors a good time. (It is said that one author, Pamela Service, was so charmed by the area that she decided to move to Humboldt from the Midwest after visiting for the festival.) This year the authors will visit the Redwood Skywalk and stay at the Carter House Inn.

“We do have such a beautiful county and such a good community here that I think that that’s really appealing, even to somebody who might not normally consider doing school visits without some kind of recompense,” Longshore said.

Of course, the main purpose of the event is connecting authors with young readers, which is valuable to both.

“I’d never met an author when I was a kid. It would have made such a difference in my perception, I think,” said Van Draanen. 

Meeting an author “has a long-lasting impact that goes far beyond that day or that book or that year, even,” Van Draanen said. “It impacts kids in a way it’s almost hard to describe.” Van Draanen is best known for her 2001 chapter book “Flipped,” which has been translated into several languages and adapted into a film. But Van Draanen especially loves meeting fans of her 18-book Sammy Keyes series, which is about a witty 13-year-old who solves mysteries.

“There’s an immediate love that you feel for each other – like I’m the creator of this thing that impacted them so much, and they are somebody who has embraced it and has led it into their heart and their life,” Van Draanen said. “There’s no way you can really describe how that is. It’s awesome.”

The author visits – and children’s books in general – are also an opportunity for kids to learn and talk about current events and misunderstood topics.

Maureen McGarry, a local watercolorist and art teacher, will be a participating author for the first time this year. Her self-illustrated book “Louie Learns a Lesson” is about Aleutian Cackling Geese, which migrate from Alaska to Humboldt Bay each winter. They were once endangered but have since bounced back – both thanks, in part, to humans. 

“It is a conservation success story – that we actually can fix some of the messes we’ve made, and how important it is to focus on doing that,” McGarry said. 

“That feeling of empowerment is so important for, especially, young people to feel.”

Meanwhile, Choldenko plans to share her new book “The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman” with the middle school-age students she visits. One character in the book is in the foster care system. 

“It’s hard enough being a foster kid without kids thinking you’re weird, and so gaining some compassion in the audience [is a goal],” Choldenko said. “I think there’s not a lot of understanding about what it is like.” 

At the end of the day, though, what matters to Choldenko is telling a good story. 

“I want to create characters that the kids really respond to, that they see parts of themselves in, or see kids that they know in,” she said. “My first job is to make kids love reading.”

All are invited to the book signing celebration on Oct. 19 at the Humboldt County Main Library in Eureka. Throughout the month of October there will also be a display about the history of the festival at that library, and the Morris Graves Museum will open a poster display from festivals past. 

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Technically, weed and hemp are the same species: Cannabis sativa. But there used to be a working distinction between the two: Ingesting cannabis/marijuana/the dank herb gets you high, while hemp is a sturdy fiber best used to make paper, rope and certain food products.

However, under California’s legalized cannabis marketplace, where weed is strictly regulated but hemp is not, unsavory entrepreneurs have taken advantage of that loophole by genetically juicing the levels of certain intoxicating chemical compounds in the more loosely regulated hemp, allowing them to sidestep a lot of red tape and sell their high-inducing hemp products at gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops.  

The state has been looking at various ways to close this loophole, though local officials have been concerned about unintended consequences. Last month, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors issued a letter of opposition to proposed legislation, AB 2223, unless and until it was amended to prevent “hemp” (which can be grown anywhere in the U.S. and shipped across state lines) from competing with Humboldt-grown cannabis in the legal marketplace. 

That controversial bill remains stuck in the state Assembly for now, but today California Governor Gavin Newsom took matters into his own hands, issuing proposed emergency regulations that would nip these quasi-legal hemp sales in the bud. (Pun sort of intended, with apologies.)

Humboldt County officials are stoked. Below is a county press release, which is followed by a release from Newsom’s office.

Governor Gavin Newsom today issued proposed emergency regulations to protect youth from the adverse health effects of dangerous hemp products. The products contain intoxicating levels of THC and do not go through the highly regulated cannabis environment, and are sold across the state, especially beverages and food products. Humboldt County officials today supported these regulations and look forward to working with the legislature, stakeholders and the Governor on a more permanent solution.

Rex Bohn, Humboldt County First District Supervisor: “Hemp was never meant to intoxicate. That is why the state went through years and years of hard work, thousands of hours and meetings with every agency and stakeholder under the sun to develop a thorough program to regulate the intoxicating nature of THC through cannabis. Allowing companies to bring in intoxicating hemp products across state lines, and potentially internationally, flies in the face of everything we have done in Humboldt and throughout California to get this right. The emergency regulations announced today are a good first step towards a more comprehensive solution.”

Michelle Bushnell, Humboldt County Second District Supervisor: “I appreciate the Governor taking action today to stop the madness. Our cannabis cultivators and everybody involved in the supply chain have to satisfy so many regulations, to protect the public health, environmental impacts, and they do it at incredibly significant costs. Humboldt County has worked very hard for years to make sure THC and cannabis is brought to market in a way that is acceptable to the people of Humboldt and California. We cannot allow hemp to simply skirt the rules for financial gain.”

Sofia Pereira, Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services Public Health Director: “Humboldt County Public Health stands with the Governor in protecting youth from intoxicating hemp products.”

Ross Gordon, Humboldt County Growers Alliance Policy Director, Origins Council Policy Chair: “From seed to sale, the lack of parity in regulation between hemp and cannabis has become completely untenable. While only the federal legalization of cannabis can truly solve these problems, we applaud the Governor for taking a meaningful step forward to close intoxicating hemp loopholes and move towards a more rational cannabis policy.”

While the regulations take effect upon approval of the Office of Administrative Law, the state legislature would need to develop law to deal with this issue long-term.

To that end, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 13 issued a letter opposing unless amended a bill that would have created a parity issue for state-licensed cannabis farmers by allowing incorporation of high-THC hemp products and cannabinoids into the licensed supply chain. The letter states “The sales of high-THC hemp products at licensed cannabis dispensaries sourced from anywhere in the U.S. when significant regulatory discrepancies exist between hemp and cannabis cultivation places thousands of small California businesses (cannabis farmers) and particularly those in Humboldt County at a competitive advantage.

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors recognizes the need to address hemp, but this must be accomplished in a manner that respects the regulatory system put in place for cannabis cultivation.”

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Gov. Newsom offered this quote: 

We will not sit on our hands as drug peddlers target our children with dangerous and unregulated hemp products containing THC at our retail stores. We’re taking action  to close loopholes and increase enforcement to prevent children from accessing these dangerous hemp and cannabis products.

And his office issued the following release?

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued proposed emergency regulations to protect youth from the adverse health effects of dangerous hemp products. The regulations, proposed by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), strengthen California’s ability to stop the peddling of intoxicating hemp products to California’s children. The new regulations require that industrial hemp food, beverage, and dietary products intended for human consumption have no detectable THC or other intoxicating cannabinoids per serving, create a minimum age to purchase hemp products to 21, and limit the number of servings of hemp products to five per package.

The emergency regulations respond to increasing health incidents related to intoxicating hemp products, which state regulators have found sold across the state, especially beverages and food products. Children are particularly at risk should they consume these products. Studies show that use of these products can negatively impact cognitive functions, memory, and decision-making abilities in developing brains.

“Intoxicating industrial hemp products can cause illness and injury to California consumers,” said Tomás Aragón, CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer. “We are working to ensure products in the marketplace comply with state laws that protect consumers against these public health risks and have proposed emergency regulations that will improve protections for consumers.”

California became the first state to allow medicinal cannabis use when voters passed the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, and then in 2016, voters legalized the recreational use of cannabis. California’s cannabis industry is strictly regulated to ensure that businesses operate safely, products are labeled and tested to be free of contaminants, and that children are prevented from accessing cannabis products. However, without stronger laws and regulations, hemp manufacturers can skirt the law to produce and market hemp products that contain THC. 

The new regulations ban any detectable quantity of THC from consumable hemp products such as beverages, food, and dietary products to protect youth and mitigate the risk of adverse health effects. 

The emergency regulations will also bring the sale of hemp products more in line with restrictions currently seen in the California legal cannabis market by limiting serving and package size and establishing a minimum age of 21 to legally purchase industrial hemp food, beverage and dietary products.

“The Department of Cannabis Control welcomes these regulatory reforms,” said Nicole Elliott, Director of the Department of Cannabis Control. “These rules are a critical step in ensuring the products in the marketplace align with the law’s original intent, and we are committed to working with our state partners to enforce state law.”

These regulations will take effect immediately upon approval by the Office of Administrative Law. Sellers must begin to implement purchase restrictions and remove consumable hemp products containing any levels of detectable THC from shelves. State regulators, including the Department of Public Health, the Department of Cannabis Control, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), and state and local law enforcement officials, will begin immediate enforcement action. 

“The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control will enforce all California laws and regulations impacting ABC licensed locations,” said Joseph McCullough, Director of ABC. “ABC will be contacting licensees and stakeholder groups to make them aware of the new regulations so they can ensure they are in compliance once the regulations go into effect.”

“Our cannabis and tobacco inspectors are out in the field every day so that consumers can know that the items on store shelves are legal in California, properly tested, labeled, and taxed,” said Nick Maduros, Director of CDTFA. “We will continue working with our colleagues at the state and local levels to educate retailers and enforce California law.”

The draft regulations can be found here.

Lissie Rydz found a note.

She’d been getting a lot of them on her doorstep since she and her roommates had set up a free pile full of books, clothes, and even spare change out in front of her Arcata house in July — thank you notes, promises to drop off items later, compliments — but this one was negative.

“Please stop putting your free stuff on the sidewalk,” it read. “Put it in your own yard. It attracts trash, makes a mess, and is not o.k. per city of Arcata code. Thank you.”

Rydz was hurt and a little surprised. The free pile, organized on a hand-painted yellow bookshelf, wasn’t what she would call a trash heap. She also didn’t think the shelf’s location on a part of the sidewalk that jutted into the street was a cause for concern either.

“It really hurt,” Rydz said. “I look at it as an altar. I tidy it up every day. I felt watched.”

Rydz has received many thank-you notes from grateful free pile users …

There’s a longstanding tradition in Arcata of people putting out their unwanted items out in front of their homes, free for the taking. But recently a backlash has started to crop up.

Signs taped to fences and posts on the local social media service Nextdoor rage against the piles. Anti-free pilers cite Arcata municipal code section 5481, which says that building occupants are responsible for removing rubbish that blocks sidewalks or could be bad for property or people.

Many piles aren’t as well-taken care of as Rydz’s. Some are full of waste such as old particle board. Some have been uncurated for too long, exposed to the elements and rotting. One along 27th Street frequently blocks a fire hydrant.

“For some reason, these piles are proliferating these days,” reads one Nextdoor post from an account named “Paula Proctor.” “They make our city look trashy by inviting more junk piles … please be more responsible citizens and have some pride in where we live.”

Proctor declined a request for an interview.

Morguine Sefcik, the environmental programs manager for Arcata’s government, said there has been a noticeable uptick in the amount of complaints they’ve been getting about the free piles since late August.

When the stuff is left on private property and is in good shape, Sefcik said the city likely has no problems with it.

“It’s like a garage sale,” Sefcik said. “Somebody’s managing that garage sale, and when they’re done, they’re going to figure out the next step for their things and manage it. And with free piles, if there was somebody with stuff on their own private property — not on city property — and they were managing this, and it wasn’t getting wet, damp, dispersed, thrown around, trashed, then it could be something that could be okay.”

If items are rotting and piling up, becoming what she called a “garbage issue,” they’ll usually respond with letters and share information about places to donate. If the items are left on public property, it has to be thrown away. All electronic waste, such as cell phones or televisions, has to go all the way to the Eel River Transfer Station in Fortuna. The city doesn’t get a special rate to throw garbage away — all waste disposal is charged at market rate.

Leaving items outside for long amounts of time can also harm the environment. Damp weather breaks things down, turning usable items into trash and microplastics; rain washes it into creeks and into Humboldt Bay.

“It’s also very unsightly,” Sefcik said. “It makes people feel pretty bad to see trash. And if any of these items are blocking streets or sidewalks, it just really affects people’s ability to move around and access their community.”

Arcata’s government prefers that instead of creating free piles, people with things they don’t want any more would donate them to a thrift store or recycle them. Recology customers in single-family homes can get two free bulky item pick-ups a year. The city has started putting out flyers and leaving brochures in areas where the piles often crop up.

Rydz doesn’t see donation as a cure-all. She helps run her free pile specifically to give things away so people don’t have to pay for them. Making people buy the same things they could have picked up for free from the side of the road runs contrary to that mission.

“Things cost money again if they’re donated,” Rydz said. “People say, ‘Oh, just go donate it!’ And then some people can’t afford it.”

Rydz does think there is room for reconciliation between free pile lovers and the haters.

“I hope that people come from a place of curiosity instead of just saying, ‘Oh, why is this stuff appearing?’” Rydz said. “Knock on my door. We can compromise.”

Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services press release: 

Environmental health officials are reminding community residents to be on the lookout for harmful algal blooms after two dogs died a short time after swimming in a small pool off the Eel River near Fernbridge on Thursday, Sept. 5. 

Warm water and abundant nutrients can cause cyanobacteria, sometimes called blue-green algae, to grow more rapidly than usual causing “blooms.” These blooms are termed “harmful algal blooms,” or HABs, and can produce toxins and taste and odors that cause health risks to humans and animals. 

Freshwater HABs can appear as dark green, blue-green, black, orange or brown water or can occur as mats and sometimes create scum or foam on the riverbed or on the water. However, toxins produced by HABs may be present without visual indicators. 

Typically, cyanobacteria warnings come out between late July and early August, coinciding with low flows and sustained high temperatures in the inland areas which may contribute to cyanobacteria growth in local rivers and lagoons.

Since 2001, there have been 12 documented dog deaths locally where the dogs died shortly after swimming in Big Lagoon, the South Fork Eel River or the Van Duzen River. In each instance, water samples confirmed the presence of cyanobacteria in the water. Additionally, in July 2021, the confirmed presence of cyanobacteria in the Trinity River east of Willow Creek is believed to have contributed to a dog’s death that had occurred weeks before. 

Most algal blooms in California contain harmless green algae, however, it is difficult to test and monitor the many miles of local rivers with conditions that readily change. To stay safe, it is best to assume that all algal blooms have the potential to contain toxins.

Officials recommend the following guidelines for recreational users of freshwater areas:

• Keep children, pets and livestock from swimming in or drinking water containing algal scums or mats—especially those occurring in slow or stagnant water.

• Rinse your dog with clean water after swimming as toxins may still be present on their fur.

• Adults should also avoid wading and swimming in water containing algal blooms. Try not to swallow or inhale water spray in an algal bloom area.

• If no algal scums or mats are visible, you should still carefully watch young children, warn them not to swallow any water and bathe with clean water after swimming.

• Fish should be consumed only after removing the guts and liver and rinsing fillets in tap water.

• Never drink, cook with or wash dishes with water from rivers, streams or lakes.

• Get medical attention immediately if you think that you, your pet or livestock might have been poisoned by cyanobacteria toxins. Be sure to tell the doctor or veterinarian about possible contact with cyanobacteria or algal blooms.

• Join or support one of the many watershed and river organizations. 

To learn more about cyanobacteria and harmful algal blooms, visit the state of California’s website at www.mywaterquality.ca.gov/habs/index.html.

To report a bloom, e-mail CyanoHAB.Reports@waterboards.ca.gov or call 844-729-6466 (toll free). Blooms can also be reported via the “bloomWatch” app which is available for free download on iTunes or Google play.

For information on conditions in Humboldt County, contact the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services Division of Environmental Health at 707-445-6215 or 800-963-9241. Photos of suspected blooms can also be emailed to envhealth@co.humboldt.ca.us.

Example of a potentially toxic bloom of cyanobacteria. (Photo by Rich Fadness and Keith Bouma-Gregson, North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board [NCRWQCB])

Anabaena, a toxin-producing cyanobacteria, in and around dying green algae. (Photo by Rich Fadness, NCRWQCB)

Press release from Humboldt Bay Fire:

At approximately 1:18 am on Friday, September 6th, Humboldt Bay Fire (HBF) was dispatched to a reported structure fire on the 700 block of Burrill St. Several reporting parties stated flames and smoke were visible from a residence at that location. HBF responded with a full first alarm assignment consisting of three fire engines, one ladder truck, and a Battalion Chief.

Engine 8113 arrived on scene first due and reported heavy fire and smoke showing from the garage of a single-story residential structure. E8113 established a water supply and began attacking the fire. Additional units arrived on scene and confirmed that everyone was out of the structure. Fire control was achieved in approximately 10 minutes. At the time of the fire the structure was occupied by three people. All were able to exit the structure on their own, but one did suffer smoke inhalation that required transport via ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital.

The pre-fire value of the home was approximately $350,000 with estimated fire loss totaling $100,000. Fire crews did an excellent job protecting the majority of the interior of the home and contents from the heat and smoke. PG&E responded to the scene and secured the gas and electrical service from the residence.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Humboldt Bay Fire would like to remind everyone that smoke detectors save lives! Smoke detectors give you crucial early warning that there may be a fire in your home andallots you time to escape. Once you’ve exited a home go to your family meeting place and ensure that everyone has made it out.

Is there a nursing shortage in California? Now, yes, though in a few years, probably not.

By 2027, the state is projected to have as many nurses as it needs because of a rise in nursing program enrollment, according to UC San Francisco projections compiled for the state agency that regulates nursing programs. The report was published last year.

But there are other sub-shortages in California’s nursing workforce. Two bills passed by the Legislature last week focus on one of those: nurses with bachelor’s degrees.

Both target a growing demand for nurses to possess bachelor’s degrees by allowing some community colleges to issue them. Presently the colleges only provide associate degrees — generally the minimum degree needed to be a registered nurse.

The bills are the latest developments in the state’s ongoing quest to tweak the educational offerings of colleges and universities to address cultural and workforce needs, from requiring ethnic studies courses to permitting colleges and universities to issue degrees they haven’t before. But the bills also underscore the complexity of both identifying a labor force problem — a nursing shortage — and the role that community colleges and universities play in graduating skilled workers.

One is Senate Bill 895 by Sen. Richard Roth, a Democrat from Riverside. The other is Assembly Bill 2104 by Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Democrat from Merced.

The California State University opposes both bills, viewing them as undermining a promise lawmakers made two years ago that community colleges wouldn’t issue bachelor’s degrees that duplicate existing Cal State programs, among other worries. Private colleges oppose the bills, as well. The University of California doesn’t officially oppose the bills but raised similar concerns.

Understanding the nursing shortages

Even as the state may not have an industry-wide nursing shortage by 2027, there are still stubborn sub-shortages.

While California has seen the number of nursing education program slots grow by 3,000 between 2018 and 2023, virtually all of that was at private nonprofit and for-profit campuses. Available slots at the more affordable public colleges and universities have remained flat.

There are regional differences, too, with California’s Central Valley and the Central Coast lacking enough nursing program slots to meet demand. “Those would be the regions that I would point to as having the biggest challenges,” said Joanne Spetz, a researcher at UC San Francisco who studies the state’s nursing sector and co-wrote the projections report

Yet another micro-shortage stems from the fact that more hospitals prefer — or require — hiring nurses with bachelor’s degrees. That makes sense: Several academic studies concluded that hospitals that increased their share of nurses with bachelor’s degrees saw lower rates of patient death and shorter hospital stays.

And an overall shortage may still persist past 2027 due to​​ “high rates of burnout” that “may lead to greater turnover and departures from nursing,” the projections report said.

What the two bills will do

Enter the two bills the Legislature passed last week.

Will they lead to more registered nurses? Speaking of his bill in July, Roth said no. But it would help produce more nurses with bachelor’s degrees — which more hospitals say they want, he said.

The bill authors — as well as their community college and hospital backers — say some community colleges should be allowed to issue bachelor’s degrees in nursing for other reasons, too.

Students who live too far from a California State University or University of California nursing program could enroll at a community college and avoid long commutes to the public universities or much more expensive private colleges. There are more than 70 community colleges in California that offer associate degrees in nursing and 21 public universities — mostly through the Cal State system — that award bachelor’s degrees in nursing. And while some universities offer online programs, not every student has fast-enough internet or enough computing power at home, Roth told lawmakers.

Students with associate and bachelor’s degrees take the same licensure exam. Typically a bachelor’s degree in nursing requires about 30 more units of coursework, which takes about a year to complete.

An overall shortage may still persist past 2027 due to​​ “high rates of burnout” that “may lead to greater turnover and departures from nursing.”
— UC San Francisco projections report

Both bills seek to form pilot programs that each allow just 10 community college districts — out of the state’s 73 — to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing.

But they vary in other ways. Soria’s bill places an emphasis on pilots in the Central Valley, which has a chronic nursing shortage. Roth’s bill is aimed at the whole state, though it would focus on the Central Valley and other regions by prioritizing pilot programs in underserved communities. Both would require the Legislative Analyst’s Office to evaluate the pilots, but Roth’s bill would have the pilot programs last until 2034 while under Soria’s bill the programs would run until 2031.

Roth’s bill requires colleges in the pilot to have national accreditation, which can take several years to accomplish. Soria’s bill doesn’t specify that. Still, 28 community colleges already have national accreditation, according to a July legislative bill analysis.

The differences raise questions about how Gov. Gavin Newsom may reconcile the two bills.

That’s one reason why the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office is “recommending the governor sign SB 895” over Soria’s bill, wrote Melissa Villarin, a spokesperson for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, in an email Wednesday. She also noted that either bill getting Newsom’s signature would be a “major victory.”

The chancellor’s office prefers Roth’s bill because it was sponsored by statewide groups close to the central office, including the Community College League of California, which represents community college administrators and trustees. Roth’s legislation is also a “bill where more attention and efforts (in terms of negotiating amendments) have been focused throughout the legislative process,” she wrote.

Why Cal State opposes bachelors degrees at community colleges

Both bills are creating a panic for Cal State leadership and the system’s nursing programs. There’s the fear that the community colleges will eat Cal State’s enrollment lunch by offering bachelor’s degrees that are cheaper than what Cal States charge.

Roth’s bill “will siphon off the students” who’d “otherwise come to a CSU nursing degree program,” said Rehman Attar, director of health care workforce development at the Cal States, during a July legislative hearing. He said the same about Soria’s bill.

Forming new bachelor’s programs at community colleges is expensive, he argued. Cal State’s online bachelor’s programs and the system’s fast-track bachelor’s degree programs with 37 existing community colleges can meet the bills’ goals, he said in an interview. More of these partnership programs are pending, he added.

There’s also a philosophical battle brewing over the distinct roles of each higher education segment in California. For decades, the state’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education stipulated that the community colleges offer certificates and associate degrees; Cal States chiefly provide bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees; and the UCs focus on research by offering bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.

But in recent years, the Legislature has permitted the community colleges to award bachelor’s degrees, with the proviso that those degrees don’t duplicate the degrees already offered at Cal States. Both systems have fought over the practicalities of that détente, but the bills proposed by Roth and Soria would knowingly blow up that public policy peace by allowing the community colleges to offer the same nursing bachelor’s degrees the Cal States already provide.

“Our overall opposition is, of course, we’re opposed to duplication,” Attar said in an interview. Both bills received wide bipartisan support. However, a few Democrats — who have a supermajority in the Legislature — expressed reservations about the emerging mission creep of the community colleges.

Among those is Assemblymember Josh Newman, a Democrat from Fullerton who is chair of the Senate’s education committee. During a hearing on Soria’s bill, he said that the master plan assumed a “division of labor, if you will, between the segments. And largely because of geographical and workforce needs, we’re seeing that erode. I believe that is problematic.”

Roth’s bill would also create new layers of pricing. It would cap tuition for the pilot nursing bachelor’s degrees to be no more expensive than other community college courses — $46 a unit — wrote Villarin.

“The only way to pursue a bachelor’s degree, if you’re in some of those communities, is to either do an online program, some of which are excellent and some of which are not so good, or to relocate to do a bachelor’s degree.”
— Joanne Spetz, researcher at UCSF

Existing bachelor’s degrees at community colleges have tuition charges that are capped at $10,560, excluding course and campus fees, so Roth’s bill would make a nursing bachelor’s roughly half that. Meanwhile, Cal State systemwide tuition, excluding fees, is now more than $6,000 a year and will grow by 5% annually through 2028-29.

Spetz of UC San Francisco said the lack of public bachelor’s degree programs in nursing is a real barrier to Californians in remote parts of the state where there’s no nearby university.

“The only way to pursue a bachelor’s degree, if you’re in some of those communities, is to either do an online program, some of which are excellent and some of which are not so good, or to relocate to do a bachelor’s degree, which just seems kind of silly and isn’t possible for many people,” she said.

She’d recommend limiting the pilot programs to community colleges that are particularly far from a public university with a nursing program. “I think having a distance threshold and really focusing on regions where there is not a public bachelor’s degree opportunity for folks …is a reasonable thing to test.”

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