By Carol Whaley
A.B. 1269 (C. Garcia) seeks to create parity for part-time faculty of the California Community Colleges so that equal work results in equal pay. This bill is sponsored by CTA, the California Teacher’s Association. It officially came from the CCA Legislation & Advocacy Committee with assistance from the Part-Time Faculty Issues Committee. CCA is the Community College arm of CTA. The proposal was brought to and voted on by the CTA State Legislative Committee which then brought it forward to the 800 or so delegates at the CTA State Council where it was approved in January, 2021.
The legislation contains three parts:
- Requires that the Chancellor’s Office collect and report part-time faculty parity data from each Community College District and that the Chancellor’s Office and each CCCD have the information available on their public-facing website by July 1, 2022.
- Requires that there be a statewide definition of Parity for Part-Time Faculty that can be applied to the local context. It would be a formula that can be tied to the local salary schedule for Full Time Faculty. A part of the statewide definition would be to determine what is included when parity data is reported: Office Hours, Shared Governance, Health Benefits, etc. The Chancellor’s Office would convene a work-group including representatives of community college faculty unions to identify the statewide definition by July 1, 2023.
- Requires that community colleges close the Parity Gap by 2027.
The bill was introduced in February and heard in the Assembly Higher Ed Committee on April 8, when it passed to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The full text of the bill as well as its history and status can be found at LegalInfo.
Carol Whaley, MFA, received her education at UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State University and has been part-time faculty in the Drama Department at San Diego City College since 2000. She is a founding member and current Vice-Chair of the San Diego Adjunct Faculty Association (SDAFA) and is an active member of FACCC. She is the editor of the Spring 2021 CPFA Journal.
Do you have background on the original establishment of parity pay and regulations to receive said funds?