Fwd: Part Time Benefits: California (fwd)

Michael Hoover hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us
Mon Oct 18 19:24:46 PDT 1999


six of one, half a dozen of the other...glass half empty, glass half full (friend of mine says content is piss so what difference does it make)...forward to the brave new world of permanent casual labor... Michael Hoover


> California Extends New Benefits to Part-Time Instructors
> By ERIK LORDS
>
> California Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill last week that will
> provide thousands of part-time instructors at community
> colleges with health insurance and could also compensate them
> for office hours, a move that faculty members at two-year
> institutions see as a crucial victory.
>
> "There's a feeling of delight and relief here," said Elaine
> Johnson, an assistant to the president of the California
> Federation of Teachers, which represents about 100,000
> educators in the state. "This is a major step forward -- the
> most important thing we established here in years."
>
> Under California's current system, part-time faculty members
> are paid less per course than full-timers and are sometimes
> dubbed "roads scholars" because they teach at two and three
> campuses just to stay afloat financially.
>
> The new law has implications for all of California's 29,000
> part-time community-college instructors. In addition to its
> provisions on office hours and benefits, the bill requires the
> California Postsecondary Education Commission to conduct a
> major study of pay disparities between part-time and full-time
> faculty.
>
> Thomas J. Nussbaum, chancellor of California's
> community-college system, said he opposed the bill originally
> because it would have mandated that part-timers be paid
> salaries proportionate to those of full-time instructors.
>
> "That would have cost us between $250-million and $400-million
> a year," he said. "We were concerned about what we would have
> to take from to achieve that."
>
> Mr. Nussbaum said he had adopted a neutral stance on the
> matter and would withhold further judgment until the
> commission had compiled its study.
>
> When the law takes effect in January, it will change the
> criteria under which part-time faculty members may receive
> benefits. Currently, they are eligible only if they work the
> equivalent of a full-time load in two or more
> community-college districts. Under the new law, the
> eligibility requirement will be a 40-per-cent load or greater
> in one district. That could help half of the part-timers in
> the state, according to Tom Tyner, president of the
> community-college council of the state teachers' federation.
>
> Mr. Tyner said the Legislature had already earmarked
> $2-million a year to pay for the health-insurance benefits,
> and the new law includes $500,000 more for health insurance,
> he said.
>
> "The old law was so stringent, and not many part-time
> instructors could qualify," Mr. Tyner said.
>
> On office hours, college districts had been able to pay only
> those instructors who taught a 40-per-cent course load or
> greater. Under the new law, instructors at any level of
> teaching load could qualify for office-hours compensation. The
> law includes some financing for that, but individual
> community-college districts will have to choose whether or
> not to apply for the money. That financing will be adjusted
> each year as part of the annual budget process, and the actual
> amount will be based on the demand.
>
> "It will provide hundreds of thousands of students access to
> instructors they didn't have before," Mr. Tyner said. "That's
> the real educational impact."
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> Subscribers can read this story on the Web at this address:
> http://chronicle.com/daily/99/10/99101204n.htm
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> You may visit The Chronicle as follows:
>
> * via the World-Wide Web, at http://chronicle.com
> * via telnet at chronicle.com
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Copyright 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list