Flirting with Disaster? 

A bill closely watched by Coursera, a high-flying online education company, that would extend academic credit opportunities for California public university students is likely to be put on hold, the bill author’s office says.

On a 28-to-0 vote on May 30, the Senate sent SB 520 by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, to the Assembly. Teachers’ unions and higher education faculty organizations oppose the bill.

“The Pro Tem is considering making SB 520 a two-year bill. The odds are pretty high at this point,” Steinberg spokesman Mark Hedlund said in a phone interview.

“This bill is not the privatization of higher education, which is what faculty have expressed concern,” Hedlund added. “We are not halting the bill because of our opposition, but because we want online education systems to become more established before we further move the legislation.”

A “two-year bill” means the measure would not be taken up until the Legislature returns in 2014.

Existing law requires University of California, California State University and community colleges to maintain a core curriculum of general education courses. Students are having trouble, however, with enrolling in these courses.

According to Steinberg’s office, 85 percent of California community colleges reported course waiting lists in the 2012-2013 academic year. On average, 7,000 students were wait-listed for each California community college that year.

Watching the bill closely is Coursera, an online education startup based in Mountain View, created in 2012, by two Stanford professors, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. The company is a third-party provider of online courses, some of which are accredited. As of July 30, the company has partnered with 86 universities, which have produced more than 400 courses for the site to a growing audience of 4 million students worldwide.

On July 10, Coursera was funded $43 million by venture capitol firms, bringing total funding to $65