BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2155|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2155
Author: Ridley-Thomas (D)
Amended: 3/28/16 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC EMP. & RET. COMMITTEE: 3-0, 6/13/16
AYES: Pan, Beall, Hall
NO VOTE RECORDED: Morrell, Moorlach
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-2, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza
NOES: Bates, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 4/28/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Teachers: retirement: full time
SOURCE: Los Angeles College Faculty Guild
DIGEST: This bill requires that collective bargaining
agreements or employment agreements applying to part-time
instructors and to adult education instructors specify the
number of hours required to earn "full-time" creditable service
for purposes of retirement benefits and also specify which
courses are subject to the minimum standard for adult education
courses.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
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1)Provides, for purposes of determining creditable service in
the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS),
that "full time" means the days or hours of creditable service
the employer requires to be performed by a class of employees
in a school year in order to earn specified compensation
earnable.
2)Requires that the number of hours necessary to meet the
definition of full-time employment in a school year be
specified in a collective bargaining agreement or employment
agreement.
3)Prevents full-time employment from being less than the
specified minimum standard and specifies that the minimum
standard, generally, for full time instructors in community
colleges is 175 days per year or 1,050 hours per year.
Typically, full time consists of a minimum of 525
instructional or classroom hours with the balance consisting
of non-instructional hours for time for duties the employer
requires to be performed as part of the full-time assignment
for a particular class of employees (This is also referred to
as the full time credit course time base of 15 hours/week for
35 weeks). Other categories do not include non-instructional
hours in their minimum standards.
4)Specifies that for community college instructors employed on a
part-time basis, the minimum standard to earn creditable
service for full time is 525 instructional hours (i.e., 15
hours/week for 35 weeks).
5)Specifies that for community college instructors employed in
adult education programs (also referred to as noncredit
courses) the minimum standard for full time is 875
instructional hours (i.e., 25 hours/week for 35 weeks).
This bill requires collective bargaining agreements or
employment agreements applying to any part-time instructors and
to adult education instructors to do all of the following:
1)Specify the number of hours of creditable service that equal
full time for part-time and adult education instructors.
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2)For an agreement entered into, extended, renewed, or amended
on or after January 1, 2017, specify the courses for which an
instructor is subject to the 875 instructional hour minimum
standard for adult education courses, if applicable. Thus,
creditable service for instructors of courses not specified in
the agreement would be based on the 175 day or 1050 hour
minimum standard for full time and the 525 instruction hour
minimum standard for part time (i.e., if the agreement
specifies the course is adult education, the instructor will
have to perform a minimum of 25 instructional hours/week but
if the agreement does not specify the course is adult
education, the instructor will have to perform a minimum of 15
instructional hours/week).
3)Make specific reference to the section Education Code Section
22138.5, defining the minimum standard for full time for
creditable service.
Background
Districts and their faculty employees generally bargain to
define full-time employment and identify a specified number of
days or hours required to work per school year as full time.
However, for purposes of earning creditable service for CalSTRS
retirement benefits, there are minimum hours that employees must
work to earn a year of creditable service in the retirement
system. These minimum standards vary depending on whether the
employee teaches full time or part time, and by which courses
the employee teaches. Community college employers and employees
refer to credit and noncredit courses. However, provisions
governing CalSTRS do not make references to credit or noncredit
courses, instead referring to instruction in courses (i.e.,
credit) or in adult education courses (i.e., noncredit).
Generally, the minimum standard for full-time instructors in
community colleges is 175 days per year or 1,050 hours per year.
However, this includes non-instructional hours. Of these 1,050
hours, a minimum of 525 must be instructional (i.e., classroom)
hours.
According to CalSTRS, "Existing law sets minimum standards for
instructional hours for all instructors at community colleges.
Community college instructors employed to teach courses in adult
education are subject to current minimum full-time requirements
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of 875 instructional hours of creditable service, although each
community college district may have actual requirements that are
higher than this minimum. CalSTRS is not involved in setting
the actual instructional hour requirements by community college
districts. However, current law requires community college
districts to submit a copy of the agreements that include adult
education instructors."
Under AB 2155, a community college district and its employees
would have to bargain to decide which courses should be
specified as adult education courses and thus, the minimum
instructional hours a full-time instructor would have to work to
earn creditable service-either 525 instructional hours (15 hours
per week for 35 weeks) or 875 instructional hours (25 hours per
week for 35 weeks).
According to the author, SB 361 (Scott, Chapter 631, Statutes of
2006), "?established three levels of funding for community
colleges. Credit courses were funded at the highest level and
noncredit (adult education) courses were funded at the lowest
level. In between those two levels was a third level for Career
Development and College Preparation (CDCP) courses, which are
also considered noncredit courses. CDCP courses, however, are
different from traditional noncredit courses in that they are a
series of courses that lead to a certificate of completion that
is designed to improve employment prospects and increase
transfer opportunities to four-year institutions."
"Many community colleges offer what could be CDCP curriculum in
the credit format because the funding level for CDCP courses was
lower than courses offered for credit. Last year's budget
created funding parity between CDCP courses and courses offered
for credit. Many community colleges find that offering CDCP
courses in the noncredit format is better for students because
there are no student fees for noncredit courses and it allows
faculty to accelerate coursework to better fit the needs of
students."
"A barrier that community colleges must overcome to take
advantage of offering CDCP courses in the noncredit format is
the requirement that faculty teaching noncredit courses are
required to provide at least 25 instructional hours per week
while faculty teaching courses for credit are required to
provide 15 instructional hours per week. Because of the
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instructional hour requirement for CDCP courses, the state could
miss out on an opportunity to increase student readiness for
employment and college-level work."
According to the sponsor, "This measure would authorize, not
require, community college districts to equalize the minimum
instructional hour requirements for credit courses and CDCP
courses. Districts would be authorized to establish, through
bargaining, a lower instructional hour requirement,
specifically, 15 instructional hours per week, for CDCP courses.
Under the legislation, districts would specifically identify
which courses are adult education courses for the purposes of
service credit allowing CDCP courses to be identified as courses
that are not adult education."
Related/Prior Legislation
AB 1713 (Furutani, Chapter 236, Statutes of 2010) authorized the
community college board of governors (BOG) to adopt criteria and
standards for the identification of CDCP courses and their
eligibility for funding, including the definition of courses
eligible for specified supplemental funding.
SB 361 (Scott, Chapter 631, Statutes of 2006) replaced the prior
system of program-based funding for community colleges with new
methodologies for allocating general apportionments and for
determining BOG budget requests; established a new category of
non-credit courses as eligible for enhanced funding; and
implemented 2006-07 Budget Act appropriations for equalization
and non-credit instruction.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to Senate Appropriations Committee this bill would
result in annual state costs, potentially in excess of $150,000
annually, related to (1) increased state pension costs, and (2)
a potential increase in labor costs within the state's community
college system.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/11/16)
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Los Angeles College Faculty Guild (source)
California Federation of Teachers
California Teachers Association
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges
Los Rios Community College District
San Bernardino Community College District
South Orange County Community College District
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/11/16)
Mt. San Antonio College Community College District
North Orange County Community College District
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the sponsor, "the measure
would authorize a community college district to locally bargain
to reduce the required instructional hours for faculty to
receive a full year of service credit for certain noncredit
courses." Additionally, "this bill would recognize the
equalized funding for the two types of courses by also allowing
districts to equalize service credit requirements for faculty."
According to the California Teachers' Association, "AB 2155
provides parity for community college educators by allowing the
parties to negotiate the same instructional hour requirements
for both non-credit and credit classes."
The California Federation of Teachers, commenting on the
disparity between the 15 instructional hour per week minimum
standard for credit course instructors and the 25 instructional
hour per week minimum standard for noncredit course instructors
states, "This bill seeks to remedy this inequity and allow the
community colleges to use CDCP courses to increase student
readiness for employment and college-level work."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION:The opposition believes that AB 2155
requires collective bargaining agreements or employments
agreements that apply to CDCP courses to be subject to a lower
instructional hour requirement for purposes of determining
service credit under CalSTRS. According to the North Orange
County Community College District, "While the bill provides an
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option, rather than a mandate, to bargain a reduction in
workload, we know that trend will be pressured during bargaining
negotiations. Deeming the bill as an option may be factually
accurate, but in reality, we believe AB 2155 will pressure
districts to lower the workload."
If the bill results in lower faculty workload, the opposition
believes that it would "make CDCP courses much more expensive
and, as a result, discourage colleges from hiring full-time
noncredit faculty"; require colleges to supplement noncredit
"with part-time faculty teaching hours to reach the 25 hours per
week"; and hire additional part-time faculty because of a ripple
effect of a reduction on part-time faculty workload since "the
maximum permitted amount of workload for part-time faculty is
67% of the full-time faculty."
The opposition raises additional concerns that the equalization
FTE reimbursement for noncredit courses will generate lower
revenue than credit course FTE reimbursements while requiring
districts to pay the same salaries or wages to instructor of
noncredit courses as to those of credit courses since the former
is based on positive attendance and the latter is based on a
census model.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 4/28/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper,
Dababneh, Dahle, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey,
Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chávez, Daly, Mathis, Olsen
Prepared by:Glenn Miles / P.E. & R. / (916) 651-1519
8/15/16 19:39:45
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