Topic: Legislative Action
Loan forgiveness program may bring relief
Last year, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) made headlines with his “Adjunct Faculty Loan Fairness Act,” a bill that would have made it much easier for part-time faculty to benefit from the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, designed to encourage graduates to pursue a career in public service by offering loan forgiveness for those working full-time in government or the non-profit sector.
Pesticide use reporting and training coming in 2016
At the end of the legislative session, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1405, by Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord), requiring safe use and accurate tracking of pesticides on school campuses. Industry lobbyists previously blocked two similar pieces of legislation.
Two new laws will benefit part-time faculty in California
Improved transfer of unused sick leave
Assembly Bill 2295 (Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles) makes it easier for part-timers to transfer unused sick leave from a previous community college employer to a new one by extending the transfer period from a mere one year to three academic years.
Join CFT campaign for office hours pay, full-time positions
How can we get more state funding for office hours, equal pay for equal work, and new full-time positions that that will benefit existing part-time faculty? CFT is calling on part-timers and their allies to urge the governor to include line items in the state budget dedicated to these essential improvements.
Advocate for our interests in providing equal education opportunities for students by writing directly to Gov. Brown and others who influence the state budget. Ask the governor and the Department of Finance for these new resources:
Faculty protest class cancellations caused by ACCJC sanctions
Two lawsuits and a trial move forward; governor signs CFT transparency bill
The trial to determine if the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges acted unfairly when it pulled City College of San Francisco’s accreditation will go ahead on October 27. In the meantime, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera won a victory when the trial judge ruled on September 19 that accreditors “violated controlling federal regulations” by having an unbalanced evaluation team, with only one academic representative to evaluate the college in 2013.
New law asks staff to perform more medical procedures
School employees “volunteer” to medicate students in danger
Senate Bill 1266, introduced by Republican Senator Bob Huff (Diamond Bar), and signed by Gov. Brown on September 16, requires public schools to stock emergency epinephrine auto injectors, known as EpiPens, on campus. This is an expansion of the law that said schools could stock the devices for students with a severe allergy to make it a mandate that all schools have the device on hand.
Legislature acts on EpiPens, teacher dismissal, drought, pesticide use on campus
FROM THE STATE CAPITOL
During the driest calendar year on record, Gov. Brown declared a statewide drought emergency, which spurred a concerted push for a new water bond.
Legislation would bring reporting of pesticide use
Staff to receive training, schools to develop pest management plans
Legislators are debating measures to ensure that pesticides at California schools don’t become a bigger concern than the pests they are meant to exterminate.
Under Senate Bill 1405, schools that use pesticides must designate someone to maintain a complete record of all pesticide use at the site, and submit it to the Department of Pesticide Regulation at the end of each calendar year. Current law requires only professional exterminators to report their use.
Staff seek fair unemployment compensation
Bill to bring equity stalled in Legislature
Linnette Robinson has worked with special needs students at Berkeley High School for four years, after two years in the district’s elementary and junior high schools.
Yet every winter and summer, Robinson and tens of thousands of other classified employees across California scrape by during involuntary “vacations” the best they can. Because while other workers receive unemployment benefits during seasonal breaks, school staff do not.
San Diego education advocate named Legislator of the Year
CFT’s Community College Council President Jim Mahler called state Senator Marty Block, who represents the cities of San Diego, Coronado, Del Mar and Solana Beach, the union’s “go-to guy on every issue for decades,” when awarding Block the CFT’s Legislator of the Year Award.
Staff seek equal access to unemployment benefits
Employees struggle to make ends meet when the paycheck stops during school breaks
Linnette Robinson has worked with special needs students at Berkeley High School for four years. Every winter and summer, Robinson, who has worked stints at other elementary and middle schools, tightens her belt and scrapes by during school breaks the best she can. “Most of us won’t see a paycheck from mid-June to the end of September,” she said.
Judge rules trial required to determine legality of ACCJC actions
CFT lawsuit advances significant step toward fair accreditation in community colleges
City College of San Francisco started 2014 with some much-needed good news. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow ruled that the school’s accreditation cannot be revoked until a trial determines whether the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, or ACCJC, acted unlawfully in sanctioning the college. Karnow said in his ruling that closing the college would be “catastrophic.”
The importance of adult education and including adult educators in consultation
Testimony of CFT's Jeff Freitas before Senate Education and Assembly Higher Education Committees
Thank you Senator Liu, Assemblymember Williams, and the committee members.
My name is Jeff Freitas and I am the Secretary Treasurer of the California Federation of Teachers. The CFT represents early childhood educators, K-12 teachers, classified employees, community college faculty, UC lecturers and librarians, and adult educators in the K-12 and community college worlds.
Union working to keep campuses safe and secure
CFT is focused on campus safety as it advances legislation and finalizes resolutions on gun control.
Retrofit door locks
Doors that lock from the inside have been mandatory on new school
construction since CFT-sponsored AB 211 became law in 2010, but
some districts have resisted retrofitting existing buildings
citing cost.
Governor drops in on CFT Legislative Reception
Governor Jerry Brown (left) drops in on the CFT’s annual reception for incoming legislators in Sacramento. To see more images, check out the photo album on CFT’s facebook page.
Opponents of evaluation bill want invalid tests to be measure of teacher evaluation effectiveness
By Gary Ravani, President, EC/K-12 Council
Showing their hand, opponents of the much-debated AB 5, A Best Practices Teacher Evaluation System (Fuentes), stated in testimony to a state Senate hearing yesterday that they are opposed to a provision that the tests used to measure academic growth be “valid and reliable” for the curriculum, the pupil being taught, and for the purpose of teacher evaluation.
Governor Brown signs bill to improve reporting for adjuncts
The governor signed CFT-sponsored SB 114. Authored by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), this bill helps correct misreporting of part-time faculty work to ensure the right amount of retirement service credit.
CFT bills limit overload, correct service credit reporting, and require rehire rights
In 2012, CFT sponsored three bills that aim to improve the working conditions for part-timer faculty. What are the bills and how can they help you in the workplace? Find out in the recap below.
Teachers as organizers: Part-timers embrace political organizing this election year
This year, part-timers have been active from the classroom to the state level in advocating for higher education funding and the rights of students. Lisa Chaddock, part-time instructor in geography at San Diego City College and Cuyamaca College, traveled to Sacramento in March to testify in the Assembly Higher Education Committee on behalf of AB 1826, which would limit full-time faculty overload to 50 percent of a full-time load.
CFT fights for death benefit equity
To help cover the average funeral cost of $7,775, CalSTRS pays survivors $6,163 when a retired teacher dies.
But when a retired classified employee member of CalPERS dies, beneficiaries are paid only $2,000. To close that gap, CFT sponsored AB 2606, carried by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Norwalk, calling for an increase in the classified death benefit to $6,000 over four years.