Below are two letters concerning Governor Brown’s plan to set aside 120 million dollars for the Community College Chancellor to create a fully online California community college separate from the 112 colleges, all already offering online instruction.
The reasons this is a BAD idea are many, but just know this:
- This college would compete with the online courses presently available at other colleges, which would damage enrollment at your school and sending you looking for more work.
- This college would hire mostly adjuncts from all over the world, not just the US, and from many places where the wages are low here might be quite high to them elsewhere.
- It would have, and these are the words of the Chancellor who would administer it, “meet and confer” status, meaning no real collective bargaining, no union protections, and likely crap wages.
The first is the letter I wrote for Southwestern College. Below that is a template for the letter you need to write for your college. To make each letter unique, enter the college you’re teaching at in the first open blank on the template,, and in the second blank, the percentage of classes taught online at your college.
Such information is public knowledge and can be gotten from your college’s office of Institutional Effectiveness. Copy, paste, edit, print out, send:
Here’s the Sample Southwestern Letter, followed by the template you should work from:
Governor Edmund G. Brown
℅ State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA
Governor Brown:
In your recent budget summary, and specifically before leading into your discussion of this year’s education budget, you spoke of “moving government closer to the people.” This in fact has been the impetus of your “Local Control Funding Formula,” or LCFF, designed to direct money to those districts or regions of the state where it is most needed.
While this desire to improve California’s workforce to reach its often most marginalized and disadvantaged population is laudable, your proposal to meet this need via the creation of a California Online Community College, though well-intended, is a step in the wrong direction.
Presently, online education is already widely available throughout California’s 72 Community College Districts and 114 Colleges. At Southwestern College in Chula Vista, for example, 10.5% of instruction is currently provided fully online, by trained and certified online instructors. These schools also already provide online counseling and 24-hour asynchronous tutoring. Community Colleges can already meet the needs of students who cannot attend a traditional campus because of work or other considerations. At the same time, unlike a fully online academy, students have the option of going to a physical location to have their needs served, such as counseling, tutoring, and health services.
The Online California College is aimed at a particular population of adults who face challenges that will not allow them to attend traditional college such as distance to the nearest college, work schedules or physical limitations that force them to stay home. Many of these potential students may lack the learning skills and efficacy for formal learning. For these students, there may the need before or even while taking an online course for more personal, face-to-face attention, or hands on instruction. Online learning in general requires a high degree of self-discipline and focus, and support to bring such students to this point can be and is provided by existing community colleges. In this regard, a fully online college cannot solve the problems nor meet the needs of these students.
The creation of an Online California College separate of the existing community colleges will only serve to decrease their enrollment, leading to potential class and program cancellations at these colleges, and in addition, causing many of the most economically at risk educators in the state, adjuncts and classified staff, to lose their jobs. It is quite likely that with a fully online academy that many teachers will no longer be California residents, or even US residents, and without union protections, will likely be paid less with limited or no benefits. Presently, one in four adjuncts nationwide is on some form of assistance, and increasing the numbers of these adjuncts seeking assistance adds to the problem of poverty in the state.
Rather than spending 120 million dollars on an Online College that creates redundancy and will hurt students, teachers, and their respective communities, this same money would better spent by increasing the number of full-time instructors, including those who are qualified to teach online. Furthermore, increasing both the pay of adjunct or part-time instructors to a more equitable level would allow them to reduce their teaching loads and better serve students, especially those who are teaching online. Finally, increasing funding for paid part-time instructor office hours, which can be and are currently provided virtually by online instructors, will improve student retention and completion, as a number of studies have shown.
Governor Brown, your desire for a better California is shared, but let us achieve it by properly funding the good work community colleges have the greater potential to do.
Name (Please Print):__________________________
Address:___________________________________
___________________________________
Signature:__________________________________
Date:______________________________________
Here is the template you should download and use:
Governor Edmund G. Brown
℅ State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
Governor Brown:
In your recent budget summary, and specifically before leading into your discussion of this year’s education budget, you spoke of “moving government closer to the people.” This in fact has been the impetus of your “Local Control Funding Formula,” or LCFF, designed to direct money to those districts or regions of the state where it is most needed.
While this desire to improve California’s workforce to reach its often most marginalized and disadvantaged population is laudable, your proposal to meet this need via the creation of a California Online Community College, though well-intended, is a step in the wrong direction.
Presently, online education is already widely available throughout California’s 72 Community College Districts and 114 Colleges. At [your] College in [your city], for example, [?] % of instruction is currently provided fully online, by trained and certified online instructors. These schools also already provide online counseling and 24-hour asynchronous tutoring. Community Colleges can already meet the needs of students who cannot attend a traditional campus because of work or other considerations. Unlike a fully online academy, students have the option of going to a physical location to have their needs served, such as counseling, tutoring, and health services.
The Online California College is aimed at a particular population of adults who face challenges that will not allow them to attend traditional college, such as distance to the nearest college, work schedules, or physical limitations that force them to stay home. Many of these potential students may lack the learning skills and efficacy for formal learning. For these students then, there may the need before or even while taking an online course for more personal, face-to-face attention, or hands on instruction. Online learning in general requires a high degree of self-discipline and focus, and support to bring such students to this point can be and is provided by existing community colleges. In this regard, a fully online college cannot solve the problem nor meets the needs of these students.
The creation of an Online California College separate of the existing community colleges will only serve to decrease their enrollment, leading to potential class and program cancellations at these colleges, and in addition, causing many of the most economically at risk educators in the state, adjuncts and classified staff, to lose their jobs. It is quite likely that with a fully online academy that many teachers will no longer be California residents, or even US residents, and without union protections, will likely be paid less with limited or no benefits. Presently, one in four adjuncts nationwide is on some form of assistance, and increasing the numbers of these adjuncts seeking assistance adds to the problem of poverty in the state.
Rather than spending 120 million dollars on an Online College that creates redundancy and will hurt students, teachers, and their respective communities, this same money would better spent by increasing the number of full-time instructors, including those who are qualified to teach online. Furthermore, increasing both the pay of adjunct or part-time instructors to a more equitable level would allow them to reduce their teaching loads and better serve students, especially those who are teaching online. Finally, increasing funding for paid part-time instructor office hours, which can be and are currently provided virtually by online instructors, will improve student retention and completion, as a number of studies have shown.
Governor Brown, your desire for a better California is shared, but let us achieve it by properly funding the good work community colleges have the greater potential to do.
Sincerely,
Name (Please Print): __________________________
Address:____________________________________
____________________________________
Signature:___________________________________
Date:_______________________________________
The Adjunct Crisis 