Nationally, the major faculty corps in community college is contingent part-time (PT) as only 17% of faculty are tenured or on the tenure track. A negative researcher bias exists in scholarly literature on this faculty majority due to an unquestioned assumption that contingent employment leads workers to reduce their performance in order to…

Millions of working Californians are unable to fulfill their families' basic needs. Higher-paying jobs that require specialized skills are beyond their reach, and many entry-level jobs are likely to be automated by 2022, so there's an urgent need to redesign the state's education and training systems to help people get the skills they need to…

The hiring of faculty is at the heart of developing and maintaining programs, as well as the success and achievement of students, in all educational systems, and the California Community College System is no exception. While hiring practices may vary in terms of specifics in the 72 community college districts in California, basic principles and…

Performance accountability systems are increasingly utilized by state legislatures to hold community colleges more accountable for student outcomes and responsible spending through the linking of state funding to specific outputs. Through these actions, it is reasonable expect an emphasis on institutional performance to permeate into a community…

For more than a decade, the debate over public school reform has created friction between teachers unions, administrators, school boards, parents, policymakers, and other stakeholders in public education and has fueled disagreements over how to improve the quality of teaching and learning for children. While many factors make consensus elusive…

During the interwar period, California's labor-intensive agriculture transitioned from reliance on diverse immigrants to preference for Mexicans. Political movements to restrict immigration, the Great Depression, and labor unrest compelled farm employers to search for labor that could be used flexibly and deported easily. To achieve this…

Employers have legitimate business interests in monitoring workplace Internet use: to minimize legal exposure, to increase productivity, and to avoid proprietary information loss. Since employees arguably have no expectation of privacy in their work on employers' computers, there are few grounds for complaint if they are disciplined for straying…

In this policy brief the author shows that contracts negotiated by local teachers' unions and district administrations allow for more flexibility than conventional views suggest. CBAs (collective bargaining agreements) are quite varied in their contents, and many school boards and unions have used the flexibility inherent in contract negotiations…

Many students recognizes the value of participating in an internship program. The experience benefits not only students and potential future employers, but colleges, too--not the mention the workforce. Internships often equip students with a competitive advantage over other job seekers. On-the-job programs not only allow students to discover the…

As conceived by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), Lifelong Learning Accounts (LiLAs[SM]) are employer-matched, portable individual accounts used to finance employee education and training. They provide employees with an affordable means of upgrading their skills and knowledge, while helping to meet the needs of employers and…

Douglas Mitchell suggests that statute construction issues arise from the interaction between the realities of power resources and the goal of giving each interest group sufficient power to protect and pursue its own interests while preserving the rights or interests of others. California SB 160 explicitly limits the scope of bargaining to wages,…

This recent study investigates sabbatical leave policy for administrators in 80 California Junior Colleges. Except for a few newly-formed colleges or those having boards generally unfavorable to the idea, most of the colleges responding to the survey indicated some type of policy for granting such leaves. Justification for these leaves ranges from…

Outlines a discussion between Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Wes Apker, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators, that centered on the status of collective bargaining in the schools. (MD)

The impact of Proposition 13 and subsequent state bailout legislation on public employee relations in the City and County of Los Angeles (California) has been a new collective bargaining environment. The 1979 negotiations, where a countywide strike was narrowly averted, illustrate the hardening of management attitudes and union militancy. (MLF)

California's 1978 Higher Education Employer Employee Relations Act empowers but regulates college and university faculty in selecting a representative and engaging in collective bargaining. The content and implications of the law are examined, with focus on administrative problems. Available from Hastings Law Journal, 198 McAllister St., San…