BILL ANALYSIS Ó
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 114|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 114
Author: Yee (D)
Amended: 1/17/12
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 7-3, 3/16/11
AYES: Lowenthal, Alquist, Hancock, Liu, Price, Simitian,
Vargas
NOES: Runner, Blakeslee, Huff
NO VOTE RECORDED: Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 6-2, 1/19/12
AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Emmerson
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner
SUBJECT : Community colleges: academic salary schedules
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill (1) allows a community college
district to calculate the salary of a part-time faculty
member, and report that salary on payroll notices and to
STRS, as a percentage of salary for a full-time teaching
load. (2) authorizes the provisions of this bill to be
subjects of negotiations for new or successor collective
bargaining agreements.
ANALYSIS : Existing law defines any person who is
employed to teach for not more than 67 percent of the hours
CONTINUED
SB 114
Page
2
per week considered a full-time assignment to be a
temporary (part-time) employee.
Existing law requires the governing board of each
California Community College (CCC) district to adopt and
cause to be printed and made available to each academic
employee a schedule of salaries to be paid.
Existing law requires the Board of Governors (BOG) of the
CCCs to adopt regulations regarding the percent of credit
instruction taught by full-time faculty and authorizes CCC
districts with less than 75 percent full-time instructors
to apply a portion of their "program improvement" funds
toward reaching a 75 percent goal. However, the state has
stopped providing program improvement funds and the BOG has
since required CCC districts to provide a portion of their
growth funds to hiring more full-time faculty.
Existing law specifies the minimum standard for full-time
service in community colleges for purposes of calculating
State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) service credit and
specifies 525 instructional hours per school year for all
instructors employed on a part-time basis, except
instructors employed in adult education programs. This
minimum standard can be increased for part-time faculty who
participate in an office hours program, as specified.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a community
college district to employ both full-time and part-time
employees and establish regulations allowing academic
employees to reduce their workload from full-time to
part-time duties, as specified.
This bill:
1.Allows a community college district to calculate the
salary of a part-time faculty member, and report that
salary on payroll notices and to STRS, as a percentage of
salary for a full-time teaching load.
2.Provides that this bill shall not preclude the
implementation of any agreement entered into that is in
effect before January 1, 2012.
CONTINUED
SB 114
Page
3
3.Provides that should an agreement conflict with the
provisions of this bill, the agreement shall prevail.
4.Provides that the provisions of this bill may be subject
to negotiation, with respect to the collective bargaining
process relating to any new or successor agreement
entered into between a community college district and
part-time faculty occurring on or after January 1, 2012.
Comments
Part-time faculty . This bill attempts to deal with two
persistent issues for part-time faculty in California
community colleges: pay inequities between full and
part-time faculty and difficulties in accruing equitable
benefits in the STRS Defined Benefit Program. As districts
have increasingly turned to part-time faculty to provide
instruction, these issues have become more significant for
both part-time faculty and their employers.
A 2000 report by the California State auditor noted that
overall, part-time faculty earn lower wages and receive
fewer benefits for teaching activities than full-time
faculty with similar education and experience. This report
also found that none of the eight districts included in the
study enhance the pay rate of part-time faculty who have
more education and experience as attractively as they do
for their full-time instructors.
The State Auditor also found that it is more difficult for
part-time faculty to obtain the retirement benefits
provided to full-time faculty, in part because it takes
longer for them to vest in STRS and because service credit
is determined by dividing the amount earned by the member
by the full-time compensation earnable. To vest in the
system, a part-time member must accumulate the equivalent
of at least five years of full-time service. If service
credit was based on the percentage of a full-time
assignment, an instructor working half-time would
accumulate one-half year of service credit for each year
worked. However, because a part-time faculty member earns
service credit in proportion to the compensation of a
full-time faculty member and because a full-time faculty
member typically has a higher rate of pay, the actual
CONTINUED
SB 114
Page
4
service credit earned may be much lower. According to
STRS, approximately 63 percent of Defined Benefits Program
members who are employed by a community college are
employed on a less-than-full-time basis.
Need for the bill . According to the author's office, the
goal of this bill is for community college districts to
establish a more uniform method of determining the
compensation of part-time faculty using a core salary
schedule that is based on education and experience, such as
a schedule that has columns that reflect increasing amounts
of education and rows (or "steps") that reflect years of
experience. By requiring districts to use salary schedules
for part-time faculty that mirror those used for full-time
faculty and to report earnings as a percentage of full-time
salary, the author hopes this bill will increase the
transparency of salary schedules for part-time faculty and
facilitate more accurate service credit accruals, thereby
enabling part-time faculty to obtain the retirement
benefits they deserve.
STRS Task Force . STRS is currently undertaking a
comprehensive review of the Designed Benefit Program as it
applies to community college faculty and has established a
task force to help facilitate a solution. Over the next
few months, this task force will be considering
alternatives to address the problems that employers,
members, and STRS experience with respect to community
college employment on a less-than-full-time basis.
Recommendations from this panel could result in new or more
equitable methods of accruing retirement benefits from
part-time community college faculty.
Prior Legislation
The Legislature has considered various measures addressing
the use and compensation of part-time faculty in the CCCs:
ACR 138 (Nava), Resolution Chapter 142, Statutes of 2010,
stated the intent of the Legislature that (1) part-time and
temporary community college faculty receive pay and
benefits that are equal to those of specified tenured and
tenure-track faculty to the extent funding is provided and
(2) the CCCs increase the percentage of full-time tenure
CONTINUED
SB 114
Page
5
and tenure-track faculty. Adopted by the Senate on 8/23/10
with a vote of 24-11.
AB 360 (Ma), 2009-10 Session, would have encouraged STRS to
conduct a study that would examine the feasibility and
cost-effectiveness of either creating a new program for
part-time instructors or making appropriate modifications
to the Defined Benefit Program to more appropriately
reflect the career of a part-time instructor. (Held in
Assembly Appropriations Committee)
AB 591 (Dymally), Chapter 84, Statutes of 2008, increased,
from 60 to 67 percent, the proportion of hours per week of
a full-time instructional assignment that an individual may
teach and still be considered a temporary employee. Passed
by the Senate on 6/23/08 with a vote of 35-0.
AB 1423 (Davis), 2007-08 Session, would have required CCC
district academic salary scheduled to be uniform in
application and effect. (Held in Assembly Appropriations
Committee)
SB 955 (Burton), Chapter 25, Statutes of 2003, exempts
service in ancillary professional activities, including
governance, staff development, grant writing, and advising
student organizations, from counting toward the calculation
of eligibility for contract or regular status for part-time
employees at CCCs unless otherwise provided for in the
relevant collective bargaining agreement. Passed by the
Senate on 4/10/03 with a vote of 40-0.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13
2013-14 Fund
STRS reporting Likely minor costs, if
community college Local
districts choose to
participate
CONTINUED
SB 114
Page
6
SUPPORT : (Verified 1/23/12)
California Federation of Teachers (source)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, AFL-CIO
California Labor Federation
California Teachers Association
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges
San Francisco Community College Federation of Teachers
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Although part-time faculty must
meet the same minimum qualifications as full-time faculty
and perform the same teaching activities, the sponsor of
this bill, the California Federation of Teachers, argue
that many districts do not give part-time faculty salary
placement credit for education or experience beyond the
minimum qualifications, making it difficult for part-time
faculty to understand how to achieve salary enhancements.
Further, the sponsor indicates that pay rates based on
classroom hours may not adequately account for teaching
activities such as preparing for class or grading papers,
resulting in inequalities in
salary and service credit reported to STRS. This lack of
clarify creates complexities in determining the STRS credit
a member has earned and can make it more difficult for
part-time faculty to obtain retirement benefits.
CM:cpm 1/23/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED