Kern College District shines in the West

The news that College of the Sequoias has been given notice it needs to make some significant improvements or lose accreditation and possibly shut, overshadowed the great news that Porterville College received accreditation.

Porterville College went through the same rigorous review as did COS. However, COS was put on notice in 2006 that significant corrections needed to be made and failed to make them. Now, it has until October to make those corrections or it cannot offer classes in 2014.

Porterville College has always been accredited and did not have significant corrections to make from its previous review in 2006. When officials from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges visited the PC campus last fall, they again did not find any serious deficiencies and awarded PC, as well as Cerro Coso and Bakersfield College — all are part of the Kern Community College District to which PC belongs — accreditation.

That is a big deal because only eight community colleges out of 56 examined last fall got a clean bill of heath from the commission. The three Kern College District schools are the only three in California to be accredited. The remaining 48 colleges have to make significant corrections, some facing the same fate as COS.

Porterville College President Dr. Rosa Carlson and her staff, as well as the Kern College Board, should be extremely proud of being accredited, especially in light that so few schools earned accreditation. Porterville College is financially and academically sound. The Kern College District has done well coping with budget cuts, far better than most others.

While we commend Porterville College, we do hope College of the Sequoias is successful in making its needed corrections so it remains open. The impact of closing that campus and putting more than 10,000 students on the street would be devastating and put a lot of pressure on surrounding community colleges, such as PC.