BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 373
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|Author: |Pan |
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|Version: |April 06, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: April 8, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lenin Del Castillo |
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Subject: California Community Colleges: overload
assignments and full-time faculty percentage
SUMMARY
This bill would establish the Community College Excellence
in Education Act and set a cap on the number of part-time
faculty for each community college district based on the
2014-15 fiscal year, thereby limiting new hires to only
full-time faculty until the district reaches a 75 percent
threshold of full-time faculty. This bill would also
prohibit new tenure-track faculty from performing overload
assignments during their probationary period.
BACKGROUND
Existing law defines "faculty" as those employees of a
community college district who are employed in academic
positions that are not designated as supervisory or
management, as specified. Faculty include, but are not
limited to, instructors, librarians, counselors, community
college health services professionals, handicapped student
programs and services professionals, and extended
opportunity programs and services professionals. (Education
Code § 87003)
Existing law defines any person who is employed to teach for
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not more than 67% of the hours per week considered a
full-time assignment to be a temporary (part-time) employee.
(Education Code § 87482.5 and § 87882)
The Board of Governors (BOG) of the California Community
Colleges (CCC) has had a longstanding policy that at least
75 percent of the hours of credit instruction in the CCC, as
a system, should be taught by full-time instructors
(commonly referred to as "75/25"). Existing law requires
the BOG to adopt regulations regarding the percent of credit
instruction taught by full-time faculty and authorizes CCC
districts with less than 75% 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. (Education Code §
87482.6)
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1. Adds legislative intent to improve and enhance the
mission of the community colleges and the services and
opportunities provided to students by increasing the
number of full-time faculty in the California Community
Colleges to better situate the community colleges to
realize their mission goals and the goals and
recommendations set forth by the Student Success Task
Force report of 2012.
2. Establishes the Community College Excellence in
Education Act.
3. Requires all community college districts to report
to the board of governors, by March 31, 2016, the total
number of classroom and non-classroom full-time
equivalent faculty attributable to hours worked by
part-time temporary faculty and by contract or regular
faculty while working on overload assignments during
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the 2014-15 fiscal year.
4. Provides that effective July 1, 2016, each
district's calculation specified above shall become
that district's maximum allowable number of classroom
and non-classroom full-time equivalent faculty that may
be staffed by part-time temporary faculty and by
contract or regular faculty while working on overload
assignments until the district's full time faculty
percentage, as specified, is greater than or equal to
75 percent.
5. Requires a community college district, upon reaching
the 75 percent threshold, to do either of the
following:
A. Maintain a full-time faculty percentage of
75 percent or greater.
B. Not exceed its maximum allowable number of
classroom and non-classroom full-time equivalent
faculty that may be staffed by part-time temporary
faculty and by contract or regular faculty while
working on overload assignments.
1. Requires the board of governors to determine whether
a community college district failed to comply with the
bill's provisions during the preceding fiscal year and
if so, shall designate an amount of the district's
apportionment, after April 15 of the current fiscal
year, that is equal to the difference between the
current fiscal year apportionment and the lesser of the
district's apportionment for the 2014-15 fiscal year or
for the preceding fiscal year.
2. Provides that the apportionment amount that the
board of governors identifies shall be deposited in the
county treasury to the credit of the district, but
unavailable for expenditure by the district pending a
determination to be made by the board of governors.
3. Allows a community college district to apply in
writing to the board of governors for an exemption, as
specified, by no later than September 15 if it appears
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that withholding the apportionment will result in a
serious hardship to the district.
4. Requires a community college district that applies
for an exemption to provide the exclusive
representative of the district's academic employees or
academic senate and all academic employee organizations
eligible for a payroll dues deduction with a copy of
the application. These persons may transmit a written
statement opposing the application, setting forth
reasons for its opposition.
5. Requires the board of governors, upon receipt of the
application and statement of opposition, to do either
of the following:
A. Grant the district an exemption for any
amount that is less than $1,000, which shall be
immediately available for expenditure by the
governing board.
B. Grant an exemption of $1,000 or more if a
majority of the members of the board of governors
finds that the district will suffer serious
hardship unless it is granted an exemption.
6. Requires the board of governors, if no application
for exemption is made, to order the entire designated
amount, or the amount not exempted, to be returned.
7. Requires the board of governors to enforce the
requirements prescribed in this bill and allows then to
adopt necessary rules and regulations.
8. Prohibits a community college district from
assigning a person hired as a contract faculty member,
after July 1, 2016, to teach any overload assignment in
excess of the equivalent of a full-time teaching load
until the person has achieved tenured status as a
regular faculty member.
STAFF COMMENTS
1. Need for the bill. According to the author's
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office, only 51-56 percent of community college courses
are taught by full-time faculty which has
disproportionately affected community colleges serving
large numbers of first generation college students,
low-income, and/or unrepresented groups. Further, the
decrease in full-time faculty has resulted in decreased
student engagement services shown to increase
retention, graduation, and transfer rates. For
example, part-time faculty, who are pressed for time,
spend zero to few hours in a typical week advising
students, even though advising is one of the most
sought after services by students. The author's office
indicates that full-time professors can help alleviate
this high need by helping provide academic and career
guidance to students during office hours. In addition,
full-time faculty are available to meet and counsel
students, participate in curriculum review and
updating, serve as advisors for student organizations,
and serve on committees to fulfill the complete mission
of the community college.
2. Is this the appropriate remedy? The bill's
objective to increase full-time faculty is consistent
with AB 1725 (Vasconcellos, 1988) which established the
goal of ensuring that 75 percent of all community
college courses be delivered by full-time faculty.
While it is difficult to dispute the importance of
full-time faculty and their ability to provide student
support services and serve in leadership capacities in
the campus community, the Committee may wish to
consider whether the proposed strategy would be
effective without providing additional resources. For
example, to the extent that a local community college
is looking to offer additional courses due to high
demand, the district may not be able to do so if it
lacks the resources necessary to hire a full-time
faculty member and is prohibited from hiring a
part-time faculty member to teach the course. In this
scenario, the bill could have an unintended consequence
of reducing the flexibility of the district to meet its
local needs and quickly respond to changing market
demands. Could the bill also have the effect of
reducing access for students if the colleges are unable
to expand course offerings? Districts that offer
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unique programs where the number of experts available
to teach may be limited could find it particularly
challenging to comply with the requirements of this
bill. One could also argue the bill infringes upon
local decision-making of the community college
districts and removes some of their discretion in
hiring.
3. Shift from "outcomes" to "inputs"? Pursuant to
Chapter 409, Statutes of 2010 (SB 1143, Liu) the Board
of Governors of the California Community Colleges
created the Student Success Task Force (SSTF); 20
members (community college chief executive officers,
faculty, students, researchers, staff and external
stake holders) who spent a year researching, studying
and debating the best methods to improve student
outcomes at the community colleges. It was their goal
to identify best practices for promoting student
success and to develop statewide strategies to take
these approaches to scale while ensuring that
educational opportunity for historically
underrepresented students would not just be maintained,
but bolstered. The report noted that while a number of
disturbing statistics around student completion reflect
the challenges faced by the students they serve, they
also clearly demonstrate the need for the system to
recommit to finding new and better ways to serve its
students. The SSTF efforts resulted in 22 specific
recommendations which were to be implemented through
regulatory changes, system-wide administrative
policies, local best practices and legislation.
Additionally, in its commitment to increase transfer and
degree and certificate attainment, the Board of Governors of
the California Community Colleges created the Student
Success Scorecard, a performance measurement system that
tracks student success at all of the 112 community colleges.
The data available in the scorecard is intended to tell how
well the colleges are doing in remedial instruction, job
training programs, retention of students, and graduation and
completion rates.
The Committee may wish to consider whether this bill,
by focusing on "inputs", represents a departure from
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these efforts which are aimed at improving the
educational outcomes of students and workforce
preparedness.
4. Implications on local bargaining. The average
percentage of full-time faculty statewide is
approximately 56 percent. The difference between
part-time and full-time faculty is left to local
discretion and each of the community college districts
may decide differently. By forcing districts to only
hire full-time faculty under specified circumstances
and prohibiting new tenure-track full-time faculty from
teaching overload assignments, this bill could be in
conflict with existing local bargaining agreements.
5. Overload assignments. The term "overload
assignments" refers to the practice of full-time
faculty electing to teach additional courses (with
additional pay) beyond their normal full-time teaching
load. While policies regarding overload assignments
can vary significantly among community colleges and
departments, they are generally designed to ensure that
the primary responsibilities of faculty are not
compromised by the overload assignments. Some colleges
require individual assignments to be approved by
department deans while others have negotiated
district-wide caps that range from one course to 67% of
a full-time load. According to the CCC Chancellor's
Office, a recent survey revealed that 13 of 44
responding colleges indicated that they have a policy
or bargaining agreement allowing full-time faculty to
have more than a 50% overload. According to the
Chancellor's Office, for the Fall 2011 semester, of the
14,489 tenured or tenured track faculty teaching
California Community College (CCC) classes, 172 (1.2%)
had an overload exceeding 50%. Note that the Los
Angeles Community College District, which encompasses
about 8% of statewide CCC enrollment, was not included
in this data.
This bill prohibits newly hired tenure-track faculty
from teaching overload
assignments. While prohibiting excessive overload
assignments may make it easier for part-time faculty to
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continue teaching, this provision could reduce the
flexibility of districts to meet local needs and also have
local bargaining implications.
6. Related and prior legislation.
AB 950 (Chau, 2013) proposed that a full-time faculty
member, as defined, for a community college district
shall not be assigned a workload that includes overload
or extra assignments if the overload or extra
assignments exceed fifty percent of a full-time
workload in a semester or quarter that commences on or
after January 1, 2014, with several exceptions, as
specified. AB 950 passed this Committee but
subsequently failed passage in the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
AB 1826 (Hernandez, 2012) would have prohibited a
full-time faculty
member from being assigned a workload with an overload
or extra assignments exceeding 50% of the full-time
semester or quarter workload, as specified. AB 1826
passed this Committee but subsequently failed passage
in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SUPPORT
California Federation of Teachers (sponsor)
California Teachers Association
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges
San Diego County Board of Education
San Ysidro School District
OPPOSITION
Community College League of California
Kern Community College District
Los Rios Community College District
Pasadena Community College District
Peralta Community College District
San Diego Community College District
South Orange Community College District
Yuba Community College District
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