A bill that would have looked at the feasibility of allowing community colleges to offer some four-year degrees -- which could have increased educational opportunities for Kings and Tulare county students -- died in a legislative committee before a vote was even cast.

Assembly Member Bill Maze, R-Visalia, proposed the bill that would have directed the state to form an advisory committee on how two-year public colleges could offer bachelor's degrees.

Kamiran Badrkhan, president of College of the Sequoias in Visalia, and Porterville College President Bill Andrews argued for the bill, along with Maze, at the committee meeting Tuesday.

"We have a lot of folks in Porterville who will never be able to get a bachelor's degree if they have to leave town to do it," Andrews said. "They're tied down to the area because of family or a lack of finances."

Other states, such as Florida, have programs in place that allow community colleges to offer university-level degrees in certain majors. Maze said the bill would have increased educational opportunities for students in Tulare and Kings counties, one of the largest areas in the state not directly served by a public, four-year institution. The closest university campuses are in Fresno and Bakersfield.

If the advisory committee had deemed the plan feasible, a pilot program involving COS and Porterville College would have been developed to offer some bachelor's degrees on a limited basis.

But the higher education committee did not like Maze's plan.

It would have blurred the lines between the state's major systems of higher education, a radical departure from the state's higher education master plan, said Bruce Hamlett, chief consultant to the higher education committee.

"It doesn't make sense to take resources from one area of higher education to duplicate their services in another area," Hamlett said. "The state doesn't have enough money."

He said community colleges should focus on forming partnerships with universities to offer more classes on their campuses.

Andrews said Porterville College tried to form such a partnership with California State University, Bakersfield, in 2001, but the plan fell through when the university pulled out for lack of money.

Much of the debate comes down to turf, said Badrkhan.

"Each system wants to do their own thing," he said of the University of California and California State University systems, which opposed Maze's bill.