BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 1826 (Hernandez) - Community Colleges: Full-Time Instructors
Amended: March 19, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 7-1
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 6, 2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1826 prohibits a full-time faculty member of a
community college district (CCD) from being assigned a workload
with an overload or extra assignments exceeding 50% of the
full-time semester or quarter workload.
Fiscal Impact: This bill imposes a new reimbursable mandate on
CCDs. The fiscal impact of this bill will vary by CCD; some will
likely experience additional costs, others will experience
savings, and still others will have no change because they have
local policies in place which comply with this bill's
requirements. The CCDs that experience increased administrative
workload and/or salary costs will likely qualify for state
mandate reimbursement.
Background: Existing law defines "faculty" as those employees of
a CCD 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 not
more than 67% of the hours per week considered a full-time
assignment to be a temporary (part-time) employee. (EC §
87482.5 and § 87882)
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.
Many colleges and universities have established policies
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regarding overload assignments. These policies appear to vary
significantly among colleges and departments. 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.
Proposed Law: AB 1826 prohibits a full-time faculty member from
being assigned a workload that includes overload or extra
assignments if the overload or extra assignments exceed 50
percent of a full-time workload in a semester or a quarter that
commences on or after January 1, 2013. This bill also specifies
that: a) The prohibition shall not supersede a more stringent
overload cap pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement; b)
the overload prohibition shall not apply to summer or
intersession terms; c) for districts with a collective
bargaining agreement that prohibits more than a 50% overload for
full-time faculty, the requirement in (1) would become operative
on January 1, 2014; and, d) the overload prohibition applies to
the workload of supervisory or managerial personnel of a
community college district who are performing faculty work
allowed under a collective bargaining agreement.
Related Legislation: AB 383 (Portantino) 2011, proposed a
one-time stipend to a CCC district entering into a collective
bargaining agreement prohibiting more than a 50% overload. It
failed passage in the Assembly Higher Education Committee in
January 2012.
Staff Comments: This bill mandates a requirement on all CCDs
which is currently subject to collective bargaining. 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 unit allowing full-time faculty to have more than a
50% overload. For the Fall 2011 semester, of the 14,489 tenured
or tenured track faculty teaching CCC classes, only 172 had an
overload exceeding 50%. For CCDs already in compliance with this
bill, there will be no immediate effect. It does, however,
prohibit the option of increasing overloads to above 50% in the
future, which could impact future collective bargaining and CCD
costs.
The ongoing fiscal impact of this bill will vary by CCD, for
those that currently allow overload assignments above 50% for
full-time faculty. It will also vary year-by-year for each CCD
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depending on how the requirement to cap overload courses changes
the faculty teaching individual courses. In some cases, courses
that could have previously been given to full-time faculty will
be taught by part-time faculty, who are typically paid less than
their full-time counterparts (though this varies by department,
institution, and particular instructors). In those cases, there
will likely be wage savings. In other cases, a CCD may end up
giving part-time faculty enough additional courses that they
teach a full-time load and qualify for benefits; this would pose
an additional cost to CCDs, because giving full-time faculty
additional courses does not entitle them to additional benefits
(because they already have benefits). This variation will be
ongoing and, thus, the fiscal impact will continually change.
This bill imposes a new reimbursable mandate on CCDs. Any
administrative costs they incur to comply with this policy
change would be reimbursable. Additionally, CCDs that incur
additional costs for individual courses as a result of this
change, (e.g. part-time faculty newly eligible for benefits or
needing to hire additional part-time faculty) could result in a
CCD seeking reimbursement for those personnel-related costs.