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The Honorable Jose Medina
Chair, Assembly Higher Education Committee
1020 N Street, Room 173
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Assembly Bill 897                           Position: Co-Sponsor

Dear Assemblymember Medina,

The California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA) is grateful for your introduction of Assembly Bill 897. This bill would raise the existing cap on the workload of California’s community college part-time instructors from 67% to 80-85% of a full-time load.

Ultimately, this means that if AB 897 becomes law, all districts would have the flexibility to negotiate with local bargaining units for new limits on part-time faculty teaching loads of up to 80-85% of the full-time load. “Flexibility” is indeed the key word for this bill because it will not establish any mandate requiring districts to raise the existing 67% cap.

CPF A believes that an updated state-wide cap of 80-85% would enhance districts’ autonomy by empowering each district to determine what is best for their students and part~time faculty. Such flexibility would especially help rural districts and districts that have small departments, which often encounter course offering shortages once the scheduling process has begun. For example, with greater flexibility, districts may offer more courses to students whenever the need arises. By allowing individual districts to engage with local bargaining units on the issue of increasing the part-time faculty workload, the quality of education provided by the CCC system goes up, as well as the number of students that can be served.

In sum, AB 897 would grant each district the freedom to negotiate with local bargaining units on the part-time faculty workload cap as they see fit, and potentially raise that limit up to 80-85%. For these reasons, CPFA is co-sponsoring AB 897 and asks your continued support of this substantial bill.

Sincerely,

John Martin, Chair
jmartin@cpfa.org
Raymond Brennan, Legislative Analyst
rbrennan@cpfa.org


Click to view or download the Original Letter to Medina.

 
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