BILL NUMBER: AB 420	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Wildman

                        FEBRUARY 12, 1999

   An act relating to community colleges.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 420, as introduced, Wildman.  Community colleges.
   Under existing law, persons employed in academic positions by
community college districts are faculty or faculty members.
   This bill would provide that it is the intent of the Legislature
that an amount be appropriated to fund 5,000 newly created full-time
faculty positions over a 7-year period commencing during the
1999-2000 fiscal year.
   Vote:  majority.  Appropriation:  no.  Fiscal committee:  yes.
State-mandated local program:  no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a)  Campuses of the California Community Colleges have
historically hired part-time faculty to meet short-term needs, to
employ working professionals as teachers, to strengthen the tie
between the college and its community, and to enrich the curriculum.

   (b) Part-time faculty provide hiring flexibility, and, in some
cases, needed expertise, at less cost than full-time faculty.
   (c) Part-time faculty often fill voids created by unanticipated
enrollment growth, and may provide technical expertise that regular
full-time faculty may not have.
   (d) With rapid expansion, community colleges began to overutilize
part-time faculty for financial rather than curricular reasons.
   (e) In the late 1980's, the Legislature attempted to reverse the
ongoing trend of hiring part-time instructors instead of full-time
instructors through the passage of Assembly Bill 1725 of the 1987-88
Regular Session (Chapter 973 of the Statutes of 1988), which was
intended to increase the number of hours that students were taught by
full-time faculty members versus the number of hours taught by
part-time instructors.
   (f) California's community college students deserve teachers who
can devote full time to teaching and are available for individual
consultations with them.
   (g) California's community colleges presently employ 67 percent of
their teaching force in part-time positions.
   (h) All Californians who are qualified and willing to work deserve
full-time jobs.  Part-time faculty are qualified for full-time
appointments.
   (i) Temporary contracts are being misused to employ part-time
faculty.
   (j) Creating full-time teaching jobs in community colleges is an
educational quality issue, equivalent to class size reduction in the
elementary and secondary schools.
  SEC. 2.  It is the intent of the Legislature that an amount be
appropriated to the Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges to fund 5,000 newly created full-time faculty positions over
a seven-year period commencing during the 1999-2000 fiscal year.