BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1379|
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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