BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-12 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 114
AUTHOR: Yee
AMENDED: March 10, 2011
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: March 16, 2011
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Beth Graybill
SUBJECT : California Community Colleges: academic salary
schedules.
SUMMARY:
This bill requires California community college districts to
place part-time faculty on a schedule of comparable salary
steps as full-time faculty with similar academic preparation
and years of experience; pay part-time faculty in a manner
that mirrors the same relationship to the placement of
full-time faculty on the schedule, and report the salary on
payroll notices and to the State Teachers' Retirement System
(STRS) as a percentage of full-time salary.
BACKGROUND
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.
(Education Code � 87482.5 and � 87882)
Existing law requires the governing board of each California
Community College (CCC) district to adopt and cause to be
printed and made available to each academic employee a
schedule of salaries to be paid. (EC � 87802)
Existing law requires the Board of Governors (BOG) of the
California Community Colleges 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% 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)
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Existing law specifies the minimum standard for full-time
service in community colleges for purposes of calculating
STRS service credit and specifies 525 instructional hours per
school year for all instructors employed on a part-time
basis, except instructors employed in adult education
programs. This minimum standard can be increased for
part-time faculty who participate in an office hours program,
as specified. (EC � 22138.5)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Makes findings and declarations concerning the
similarity of part-time and full-time community college
faculty in terms of academic credentials and
qualifications and the number of non-classroom hours
spent preparing lessons and grading assignments;
declares that part-time community college faculty
salaries should accurately reflect actual work performed
both in and out of the classroom, including regularly
scheduled office hours, and asserts that an hourly pay
schedule underrepresents actual work performed.
2) Finds that repeated problems have occurred, and continue
to occur, with accurate calculation and reporting of
service credit to the State Teachers' Retirement System
(STRS) and from STRS to part-time faculty, particularly
for faculty who work in more than one community college
district. Finds that a full-time equivalent student
(FTES) percentage-based reporting system could
dramatically resolve problems in calculating and
reporting STRS service credit. Finds that part-time
faculty salaries in the University of California and the
California State University systems, as well as in most
K-12 districts, are calculated and reported for all
purposes as FTES.
3) States that all part-time and temporary faculty should
receive pay and benefits that are equal to those of
tenured and tenure-track faculty of comparable
qualifications doing comparable work as determined on a
pro rata basis.
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4) Expresses the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that accomplishes the following:
a) Requires that part-time community college
faculty be placed on the same salary schedule as
their full-time colleagues who have similar
academic preparation and years of experience.
b) Requires that the salary of part-time
community college faculty be calculated, stated on
payroll notices and class assignments, and reported
to STRS as a percentage of full-time salary.
5) Requires a community college district to determine the
compensation of part-time faculty using a salary
schedule that places part-time faculty on comparable
salary steps as full-time faculty with similar academic
preparation and years of experience.
6) Requires part-time faculty to be placed on a schedule
that mirrors the same relationship to placement of
full-time faculty on the schedule.
7) Requires a community college district to calculate the
salary of a part-time faculty member, and report that
salary on payroll notices and to STRS as a percentage of
full-time salary.
8) Provides reimbursement authority for costs associated
with meeting requirements of this act if the Commission
on State Mandates determines that this act contains
mandated costs.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Part-time faculty . This bill attempts to deal with two
persistent issues for part-time faculty in California
community colleges: Pay inequities between full-time
and part-time faculty and difficulties in accruing
equitable benefits in the STRS Defined Benefit Program.
As districts have increasingly turned to part-time
faculty to provide instruction, these issues have become
more significant for both part-time faculty and their
employers.
A 2000 report by the California State Auditor noted that
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overall, part-time faculty earn lower wages and receive
fewer benefits for teaching activities than full-time
faculty with similar education and experience. This
report also found that none of the eight districts
included in the study enhance the pay rate of part-time
faculty who have more education and experience as
attractively as they do for their full-time instructors.
The State Auditor also found that it is more difficult for
part-time faculty to obtain the retirement benefits
provided to full-time faculty, in part because it takes
longer for them to vest in STRS and because service
credit is determined by dividing the amount earned by
the member by the full-time compensation earnable. To
vest in the system, a part-time member must accumulate
the equivalent of at least five years of full-time
service. If service credit was based on the percentage
of a full-time assignment, an instructor working
half-time would accumulate one half-year of service
credit for each year worked. However, because a
part-time faculty member earns service credit in
proportion to the compensation of a full-time faculty
member and because a full-time faculty member typically
has a higher rate of pay, the actual service credit
earned may be much lower. According to CalSTRS,
approximately 63 percent of Defined Benefits Program
members who are employed by a community college are
employed on a less-than-full-time basis.
2) Need for the bill . Although part-time faculty must meet
the same minimum qualifications as full-time faculty and
perform the same teaching activities, the sponsor of the
bill, the California Federation of Teachers, argues that
many districts do not give part-time faculty salary
placement credit for education or experience beyond the
minimum qualifications, making it difficult for
part-time faculty to understand how to achieve salary
enhancements. Further, the sponsor indicates that pay
rates based on classroom hours may not adequately
account for teaching activities such as preparing for
class or grading papers, resulting in inequalities in
salary and service credit reported to STRS. This lack
of clarity creates complexities in determining the STRS
credit a member has earned and can make it more
difficult for part-time faculty to obtain retirement
benefits.
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According to the author, the goal of SB 114 is for community
college districts to establish a more uniform method of
determining the compensation of part-time faculty using
a core salary schedule that is based on education and
experience, such as a schedule that has columns that
reflect increasing amounts of education and rows (or
"steps") that reflect years of experience. By requiring
districts to use salary schedules for part-time faculty
that mirror those used for full-time faculty and to
report earnings as a percentage of full-time salary, the
author hopes SB 114 will increase the transparency of
salary schedules for part-time faculty and facilitate
more accurate service credit accruals, thereby enabling
part-time faculty to obtain the retirement benefits they
deserve.
3) Collective bargaining implications . Compensation
agreements for full and part-time community college
faculty are locally bargained. In some districts,
part-time and full-time faculty may be in separate
bargaining units and have separate union representation.
Some districts have established higher pay rates for
full-time faculty to account for non-instructional
responsibilities such as curriculum development,
committee work, and staff development.
A district that would need to redesign an existing or
implement a new salary schedule that meets the
requirements of this bill may need to negotiate those
changes with their local bargaining units. At least one
district noted that for districts that have separate
bargaining units for full and part-time faculty, the
comparability requirements would mean that the salary
conditions for one bargaining unit (part-time) would be
based upon the negotiations of another unit. Could this
add unnecessary complexity to the bargaining process?
Given that compensation agreements for part-time faculty
are locally bargained and some districts have adopted
step and column schedules, it could be argued that local
pay schedules reflect what was bargained for on behalf
of part-time faculty.
It is unclear whether the requirement to place part-time
faculty on a schedule that "mirrors the same
relationship to placement of full-time faculty on the
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schedule" will be interpreted in the same manner across
districts or between districts and their faculty
associations. Although the sponsor has indicated that
the intent of this bill is not to require the adoption
of pro-rata pay schedules, could some interpret this
provision to mean there must be 100%
schedule-to-schedule parity, particularly given the
intent language in Section 1 of the bill? In order to
clarify the stated intent, staff recommends amendments
to remove this intent language by deleting paragraph (b)
and subparagraphs (1) and (2) in Section 1 of the bill.
4) Fiscal effect This bill could result in unknown, but
potentially significant, mandated costs for districts
that need to modify existing or develop new salary
schedules for part-time faculty. Additional costs could
be incurred if districts need to negotiate these changes
with their unions. Further, it is unclear how districts
will account for part-time faculty who perform ancillary
duties such as governance, staff development, or
advising student organizations.
5) STRS Task Force . The California State Teachers'
Retirement System is currently undertaking a
comprehensive review of the Designed Benefit Program as
it applies to community college faculty and has
established a task force to help facilitate a solution.
Over the next few months, this task force will be
considering alternatives to address the problems that
employers, members, and STRS experience with respect to
community college employment on a less-than-full-time
basis. Recommendations from this panel could result in
new and more equitable methods of accruing retirement
benefits for part-time community college faculty.
6) Previous legislation . The Legislature has considered
various measures addressing the use and compensation of
part-time faculty in the California Community Colleges:
ACR 138 (Nava, Resolution Chapter 142, 2010) stated the
intent of the Legislature that a) part-time and
temporary community college faculty receive pay and
benefits that are equal to those of specified tenured
and tenure-track faculty to the extent funding is
provided and b) the California Community Colleges
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increase the percentage of full-time tenured and
tenure-track faculty. This measure was heard by this
Committee on June 30, 2010, and was passed on a 6-2
vote.
AB 360 (Ma, 2009) would have encouraged the State Teachers'
Retirement System to conduct a study that would examine
the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of either
creating a new program for part-time instructors or
making appropriate modifications to the Defined Benefit
Program to more appropriately reflect the career of a
part-time instructor. This bill was held by the
Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 591 (Dymally, Chapter 84, Statutes of 2008) - increased
from 60 to 67 percent the proportion of hours per week
of a full-time instructional assignment that an
individual may teach and still be considered a temporary
employee. This measure was heard by this Committee on
June 11, 2008, and was passed on a 9-0 vote.
AB 1423 (Davis, 2007), would have required CCC district
academic salary schedules to be uniform in application
and effect. This measure was held by the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
SB 955 (Burton, Chapter 25, Statutes of 2003) - exempts
service in ancillary professional activities, including
governance, staff development, grant writing, and
advising student organizations, from counting toward the
calculation of eligibility for contract or regular
status for part-time employees at California Community
Colleges unless otherwise provided for in the relevant
collective bargaining agreement. This measure was heard
by this Committee on April 2, 2008, and was passed on a
12-0 vote.
SUPPORT
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
California Federation of Teachers
California Labor Federation
California Teachers Association
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Faculty Association of California Community Colleges
San Francisco Community College Federation of Teachers
An individual
OPPOSITION
None received.