Part-time instructors are key to Fresno City College, so they deserve quality health care

Lots of folks have heard me say over the years that education is a faith-based enterprise. Education requires the student to believe in the promise uttered at every level of the education system — by teachers, staff, and administrators — that, if they do well within the system, they will receive some sort of validation (a degree or certificate) which permits and empowers them to go into the world to make a better life for themselves and their families.

This is the very same creed that led all of my colleagues and I to become educators: we believe so sincerely in the promise of education that we have committed our entire lives to the offering and fulfillment of that promise in our students.

Throughout the state of California, more than half of the teachers in higher education are part-timers. Here at Fresno City College, they are 60% of the faculty. They teach more than half of the classes. Without our part-timers, the present system of higher education would be impossible.

These are highly educated folks. All of them have at least a master’s degree, which means a minimum of six years of higher education beyond high school, just like their full-time colleagues. Lots of us have multiple degrees or doctorates, which take even longer to earn. That is the level of commitment to and belief in the promise of education that my colleagues have.

Here’s the problem: This promise is not being fulfilled within the very institutions from which the promise comes. In spite of their essential nature, in spite of their commitment, our part-time colleagues have no access to employer-provided health benefits. If they get sick, they go to urgent care. If they have a procedure, they pay for it out of pocket. If they get really sick, they become homeless.

Education promised them a better life, and they cannot even afford to get the flu.

There is hope, though. In the state budget this year, Gov. Newsom has proposed $200 million of ongoing funds for part-time health care. Now we need the Legislature both to approve the funding, and to work to make program changes to ensure that quality, affordable care is available to as many part-time faculty as possible.

Here’s what my fellow community college faculty and I are asking for:

1. Allow all part-time faculty working at least 40% of a full-time load to be eligible for coverage immediately upon meeting this requirement.

2. Offer part-time faculty the same plans provided to full-time faculty. The current culture of have and have-nots denies over half of our teachers the security of affordable health care.

3. Measure eligibility across districts. Many of our part-timers work at multiple college districts to scratch out a living — they call us “freeway flyers.” If faculty are not eligible in any one district, but work a 40% load across more than one district, they should get reimbursed for their health insurance costs.

4. Cap employee contributions toward health care to no more than 10% of premium costs. Our part-time faculty earn, on average, less than one-third of what their full-time colleagues do. Without a cap, the health-care plan might still be too expensive for the part-timer to use.

You can help. Reach out to your legislators and to Gov. Newsom today. Express support for the California Federation of Teachers’ plan to provide quality health care to community college instructors. Help us begin to restore the promise of education to the very people who offer that promise to every other member of our community: our part-time faculty.