Topic: Education Funding

Article

State budget for 2023-24
Protects public education with ongoing funding; staffing crisis requires more support

State budget for 2023-24 protects public education with ongoing funding; staffing crisis requires more support:

Governor Newsom and the state Legislature came to an agreement in late June on a budget for 2023-24 that includes $225 billion in general fund expenditures while addressing a $31.7 billion deficit.

The Proposition 98 funding minimum guarantee is $108.3 billion in 2023-24, which is less than what last year’s enacted budget assumed, but slightly higher than the revised guarantee for 2022-23.

Article state budget

Governor’s Proposed State Budget for 2023-24
Research Brief

Governor Newsom started off the 2023-24 budget process on January 10 with a $223.6 billion proposal. Facing lower revenues than expected last year and a budget deficit projected at $22.5 billion by the Department of Finance, the January budget proposal is cautionary. Since the 2022-23 enacted budget anticipated a different budgetary landscape and included significant one-time expenditures, the governor’s initial proposal includes few cuts to education and does not draw on the available rainy-day reserves. Protecting education funding, the proposal also fully funds the statutory COLA, which is estimated at 8.13% at this time.

Download the Research Brief

Geoff Johnson, AFT Guild San DiegoLacy Barnes, CFT Senior Vice PresidentCFT President Jeff Freitas

AFT resolution asks U.S. Department of Education to conduct higher ed study
Calls for national data about adjunct/contingent pay and benefit inequities

CFT once again demonstrated its commitment to adjunct/contingent faculty by submitting and winning unanimous passage of its resolution “Calling for Department of Education Study of Pay and Benefit Inequity” at the AFT Convention July 15 in Boston.

State Capitol

Governor signs six CFT bills, plus budget trailer bills with union priorities
Legislative Update

Governor Newsom signed six union bills at the end of September that the CFT successfully lobbied in both houses of the Legislature. The CFT had sponsored or co-sponsored 16 legislative bills alongside several budget proposals in the last year of the 2020-22 legislative session. A majority of these priorities made it to the governor’s desk or were included in the state budget, with only one bill being vetoed by the governor.

Article PT campaign part-time faculty
FAQ

FAQ: Part-time faculty healthcare, collective bargaining & state budget
Answers to common questions

Updated September 27, 2022

This year we won a historic expansion of state funding for part-time community college faculty healthcare, increasing state support from $490,000 to $200 million in ongoing funding.

The funding will enable local community colleges to provide quality, affordable, and accessible healthcare to substantially more part-time faculty. Local unions should now prepare to go to the bargaining table to negotiate the healthcare implementation.

trailer carrying funds allocated in budget trailer bills

What budget trailer bills mean for education workers
Legislative Update

On September 30, Governor Newsom signed the final budget trailer bills sent to him by the Legislature after passing the bills and a “budget junior” on August 31. Budget trailer bills are created by the Committee on Budget to provide technical language for the implementation of fiscal allocations. The budget junior bill includes additional allocations as well as additional items necessary for implementation of some July budget expenditures.

The budget-related bills go into effect immediately. CFT priorities in the budget trailer bills are listed below.

Article PT campaign part-time faculty
Part-time faculty on a zoom meeting

Join a campaign kickoff meeting on Zoom — Faculty Healthcare Now!
In phase 2, learn how to secure funding for part-timer healthcare in your community college district

We invite local union leaders, activists, and rank-and-file members to please join us and kick off this phase with faculty power!

In Phase 1 of the Part-Time Faculty Campaign, our collective efforts secured $200 million in ongoing funding for part-time faculty healthcare in the California state budget. Now in Phase 2, we are launching coordinated collective bargaining as members begin to mobilize and bargain in their home districts to secure this funding in contracts or MOUs.

Article student debt
President Biden making student debt cancellation announcementcutting the ball and chain of student debt

What does Biden’s cancellation of student debt mean?
Understand the changes; pandemic pause for repayment pushed back four months

The AFT and CFT applauded President Biden’s plan announce August 24 to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for some borrowers and extend the pandemic pause on loan repayment. 

AFT President Randi Weingarten in a press release said, “Today, millions of Americans can breathe easier knowing that some of the crushing burden of student loan debt has been lifted. Make no mistake—this is a transformative action that will change countless lives.”

Article state budget PT campaign
record education spending bar chart

State budget sets record for education, includes new funds for part-time faculty healthcare
Research Brief

Governor Newsom and the state Legislature reached agreement on a $235 billion state budget for fiscal year 2022-23, with Proposition 98 funding for K-14 education totaling $35.8 billion more than the previous year’s allocation.

Spending for TK-12 education totals $128.6 billion and provides per pupil funding of $22,893 (including monies from all sources) and $16,993 per pupil from Prop 98. The community college budget totals $13.4 billion (including $12.6 billion in Prop 98 funds) and, significantly, increases the ongoing funding for part-time faculty healthcare by $200 million per year.

Article PT campaign part-time faculty
Regional Trainings

Join a campaign kickoff meeting this fall — Faculty Healthcare Now!
Local mobilizing and bargaining — learn how to secure funding for part-time healthcare in your community college district

In phase one of the Part-Time Faculty Campaign, our collective efforts secured $200 million in ongoing funding for part-time faculty healthcare in the California state budget. 

Now we are launching phase two — coordinated collective bargaining — as members begin to mobilize and bargain in their home districts to secure this funding locally.

Article PT campaign part-time faculty
FAQ- Part-Time Faculty Healthcare

FAQ: Part-time faculty healthcare, the state budget, and collective bargaining
Quick answers to common questions

Updated July 1, 2022

About half of the California community college districts offer healthcare benefits for part-time faculty; the quality of the benefits is wide ranging with some offering the same benefits package to full- and part-time faculty and some offering very modest stipends to help cover the cost of insurance.

Article state budget PT campaign
Governor Newsom announcing May Revision of state budget

State budget continues record funding for public education, secures funding for part-time faculty healthcare
Legislative Update

Funding for part-time community college faculty healthcare secured

Governor Newsom signed the final state budget on Friday, June 30 after the governor and state legislators reached agreement on the 2022-23 budget over the weekend. The deal includes record levels of funding for public education and the $200 million to support part-time faculty healthcare that CFT has been championing throughout this budget process.

Part-timers and allies lobby legislators for healthcare, pay parity
PHOTO GALLERY
Students and full-time faculty join forces with part-time faculty

From the Bay Area to San Diego, and from the Central Valley to the Mojave Desert, part-time community college faculty, along with full-time faculty and student allies, gathered at Sacramento’s famed Sutter Club on Monday morning, May 1, to go forth and make California legislators aware of the critical need for part-time faculty healthcare and pay parity.

Article part-time faculty PT campaign

Part-Time Faculty Conference empowers through learning
PHOTO GALLERY
Workshops focus on bargaining, lobbying, organizing, diversity, communications

When it comes to union work, power and knowledge work hand in hand. Union is not simply about expressing demands, speaking truth to power, and being resolute in the face of adversity. It’s about making connections, sharing truths, building solidarity, empowering, and speaking to be heard.

Developing the knowledge to do these things and putting the power of that knowledge to use was core to the workshops at the CFT Part-Time Faculty Conference held May 1-2 in Sacramento.

Article state budget PT campaign
Governor Newsom announcing May Revision

Amid record surplus, governor directs more funds to education in May Revision
Legislative Update

Newsom keeps $200 million in ongoing funding for part-time faculty healthcare

Governor Newsom proposed significant increases for education and a 6.56% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in his revised proposal of the 2022-23 state budget released May 13. Education funding accounts for the majority of state budget expenditures, but the governor also proposes an inflation relief package and monies to combat housing insecurity.

Article part-time faculty PT campaign
CFT Part-Time Faculty Survey Report 2022

Groundbreaking CFT survey calls out healthcare crisis among part-time faculty
Critical insights into part-time faculty in community colleges statewide

The results of CFT’s groundbreaking statewide survey of part-time faculty offer critical insights into the daily, personal, and structural challenges that part-time and contingent faculty experience when it comes to healthcare.  

Article PT campaign part-time faculty coronavirus
Samira RostamiTehmina KhanBernadette MoordigianSamira Rostami in classroom

What does losing healthcare look like for part-time faculty in our community colleges? Part 2
Pandemic, declining enrollment has led to loss of health benefits

Samira Rostami has taught Communication Studies at Grossmont College since 2014, as well as at four other San Diego area higher ed institutions including the University of San Diego. Her health took a dramatic turn for the worse shortly after area campuses closed in late March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.