BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1379| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bill No: SB 1379 Author: Mendoza (D) Amended: 8/29/16 Vote: 21 PRIOR VOTES NOT RELEVANT ASSEMBLY FLOOR: Not available SUBJECT: Community colleges: part-time, temporary employees SOURCE: California Federation of Teachers California Teachers Association DIGEST: This bill requires California community college (CCC) districts to negotiate collective bargaining agreements with part-time faculty that include terms of reemployment preference and a regular evaluation process, as specified, as a condition of receiving funds allocated for the Student Success and Support Program (SSSP). Assembly Amendments gut and amend this bill, which previously proposed to restructure the composition of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to instead require, as a condition of receiving funds allocated for the Student Success and Support Program (SSSP), good faith negotiation on the establishment of terms of reemployment preference, including termination policies, and a regular evaluation process, as specified. The amendments also add additional intent language regarding minimum standards for the terms of reemployment preference. SB 1379 Page 2 ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Defines "faculty" as those employees of community college districts 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) 2)Defines any person who is employed to teach for not more than 67% of the hours per week considered a full-time assignment to be a part-time, temporary employee. (EC § 87482.5 and § 87882) 3)Requires the Board of Governors (BOG) to adopt regulations regarding the percent of credit instruction taught by full-time faculty and authorizes community college districts with less than 75% full-time instructors to apply a portion of their "program improvement" funds toward reaching a 75% 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. (EC § 87482.6) This bill: 1)Requires, as a condition of receiving funds allocated for the SSSP, community college districts that do not have a collective bargaining agreement with part-time faculty in effect as of January 1, 2017, to negotiate in good faith with exclusive representatives for part-time, temporary faculty all of the following: a) The terms of reemployment preference for part-time faculty assignment based on minimum standards up to the SB 1379 Page 3 range of 60 to 67 percent of a full-time equivalent load, as specified. The terms of reemployment preference should also contain policies for termination, including but not limited to the evaluation process negotiated, as specified. b) A regular evaluation process for part-time faculty, as specified. 2)Provides that a community college district with a collective bargaining agreement with part-time faculty in effect as of July 1, 2017, that has satisfied the requirements specified above, and executes a signed written agreement, shall be deemed to be in compliance while the bargaining agreement is in force. 3)Provides that in all cases, part-time faculty assignments are temporary in nature, contingent on enrollment and funding, and subject to program changes, and no part-time faculty member has a reasonable assurance of continued employment at any point, irrespective of the status, length of service, or reemployment preference of that part-time faculty member. 4)Provides legislative intent language, as specified, regarding the establishment of minimum standards for the terms of reemployment preference for part-time faculty, including that the minimum standards should consider the length of time part-time faculty have served at the community college or district, the evaluations conducted and other methods of evaluation that can be used to assess educational impact as it relates to student success. Comments Need for the bill. According to the author's office, "job instability continues to be one of the greatest concerns for part-time/temporary faculty. The inability to negotiate reemployment policies at most community college districts has resulted in unreliable reemployment practices. This leaves many SB 1379 Page 4 part-time faculty wondering if they will have a job the following semester. Additionally, many part-time/temporary faculty are left with no option but to piece together full-time teaching schedules through employment in two or more community college districts. The varying reemployment policies in these community college districts make it difficult for part-time/temporary faculty to plan their upcoming teaching schedules." The author's office contends that in most cases, part-time instructors are paid significantly less than full-time faculty for the same duties of preparation, teaching and grading, and assessment. In addition to receiving significantly less in compensation than their full-time counterparts, in most cases part-time faculty receive no health coverage and are not compensated for office hours outside of class to meet with students. The author argues that, "this lack of dignity, fairness, and equity translates to poor prospects for career advancement, resulting in many qualified part-time faculty leaving the profession annually." Existing reemployment policies. Current law requires that reappointment rights for temporary faculty are a subject of negotiation during collective bargaining and provides that reappointment rights may be based on whatever factors are agreed to by both parties. Accordingly, many community college districts have established policies and practices regarding reappointment rights through the bargaining process. Additionally, several community college districts have successfully negotiated bargaining agreements, including the Grossmont-Cuyamaca, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Ventura community college districts. While this bill is intended to provide job security for part-time faculty and minimum standards for how they are treated, community college districts and local bargaining units already have the ability to negotiate reemployment policies. Part-time faculty. For some time, the Legislature has considered various efforts to address the issue of community college districts hiring part-time faculty members in lieu of full-time faculty. Much of the reason to utilize temporary faculty is the lower costs associated with such faculty. Several studies on temporary faculty found that community college districts pay temporary faculty significantly less than SB 1379 Page 5 full-time faculty performing the same duties, and nearly half of temporary faculty reported not receiving any type of benefits from their district. According to the Center for Community College Student Engagement's (CCCSE) April 2014 report, entitled, "Contingent Commitments: Bringing Part-Time Faculty Into Focus," 70% of the 400,000 faculty members of public, two-year colleges hired in 2009 were part-time instructors. The CCCSE report also found that part-time faculty teach 58% of community college classes and 53% of community college students. Additionally, the CCCSE report found that differences in the actions of part-time and full-time faculty cannot necessarily be attributed to differences in the will or abilities of part-time faculty. The report contends that, "Most likely, they exist at least in part because colleges too often are not fully supporting part-time faculty or engaging them in critical elements of the faculty experience." According to the California Federation of Teachers, nearly 50% of the CCC course selections are taught by part-time faculty and part-time faculty out number full-time faculty by two to one. Student Success at the Community Colleges. Pursuant to SB 1143 (Liu, Chapter 409, Statutes of 2010), the CCC BOG created the Student Success Task Force (SSTF); 20 individuals (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. According to the SSTF report, which was unanimously adopted by the BOG in January 2012, 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 SSTF efforts resulted in 22 specific recommendations focused on eight separate areas, increasing college and career readiness, strengthening support for entering students, and incentivizing successful student behaviors. Implementation of SB 1379 Page 6 these recommendations is being accomplished by the Chancellor's Office of the CCC via the "Student Success Initiative" through regulatory changes, system-wide administrative policies, local best practices and legislation. These implementation efforts include the following: 1)SB 1456 (Lowenthal, Chapter 624, Statutes of 2012) recast the Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of 1986 in order to target funding to services such as orientation, assessment, and counseling and advising to assist students with the development of education plans. 2)At a regulatory level, the BOG approved regulations that provide enrollment priority to students who have participated in assessment, orientation, and who have developed an education plan. In addition, statutory priority enrollment extended to veterans, foster youth, Extended Opportunity Program & Services students, and disabled students requires participation in these Student Success Services and programs. Students are now required to complete core services as well as to declare a course of study. In addition, districts are now required to notify students that accumulating 100 degree applicable units or being on academic or progress probation for two consecutive terms will result in the loss of enrollment priority. Since 2012, the State has increased ongoing funding for community college student success and support by nearly $600 million. These funds have been designated to support the SSSP to provide targeted services such as orientation, assessment, and counseling and advising to assist students with the development of education plans. In addition these funds support the creation of Student Equity Plans to improve access and outcomes for disadvantaged groups, as well as a number of Chancellor's Office Initiatives to provide related support to districts. Dilution of SSSP efforts? By conditioning the receipt of SSSP funds to the requirement for community college districts to negotiate collective bargaining agreements with part-time faculty, this bill could potentially dilute the existing SSSP efforts to the extent that local districts elect not to comply with this measure. However, it is unclear how likely it would SB 1379 Page 7 be for a local community college district to do so. SSSP funds can range anywhere from the mid-hundreds of thousands of dollars for a smaller district to as much as $10 million for a larger district. Regardless, if a district chooses not to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with part-time faculty, the loss of SSSP funds could be costly, especially given the significant investments the State has made with these funds to implement strategies to incentivize successful student behaviors and improve completion at the community colleges. This bill could also set a precedent for future legislation seeking to leverage other requirements while placing similar conditions on the receipt of SSSP funds. This could then further dilute these funds which are intended for critical academic support services for students. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, based on the previous version of this bill, there would be the following: New seniority lists: According to the Community College League of California, out of 72 community college districts 40 districts do not include seniority provisions in collective bargaining agreements with part-time faculty. Assuming a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 per district to establish a list, statewide reimbursable costs would be between $200,000 and $400,000. This estimate assumes that the estimated 32 remaining districts have an agreement in place that is based on seniority up to the 60 to 67 percent of a full-time equivalent load; has a regular evaluation process; and includes due process for termination. Once these existing agreements expire, new agreements would have to be established containing the specified requirements in this bill. (Proposition 98) Maintenance of all lists: Initially only those districts that are not exempt of this bill's requirements will be eligible to claim for reimbursement for maintaining seniority lists. Once existing agreements that are eligible for exemption expire all districts will be required to maintain seniority lists in SB 1379 Page 8 accordance with this bill. If each college campus used a partial position to track the data necessary to maintain the seniority list, reimbursable state mandate costs could exceed $2 million. (Proposition 98) SUPPORT: (Verified8/31/16) California Federation of Teachers (co-source) California Teachers Association (co-source) OPPOSITION: (Verified8/31/16) None received Prepared by:Lenin DelCastillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105 8/31/16 21:01:04 **** END ****