Part-Time Teachers Bring In Revenue

Amy Pyle’s article on the community college budget squeeze mentions that at Valley and Pierce colleges, full-time instructors probably will be asked to teach some of the more popular night and weekend classes usually taught by part-time faculty. It also mentions that state funding is based on enrollment.

The current salary for a part-time teacher carrying a load of six units per semester in the Los Angeles Community College District is about $8,300 a year, or slightly more than $2,000 per three-unit, 19-week class. The current salary for a full-time instructor with a load of from 12 to 17 units is $45,000, or around $5,000 per class.

Yet evening classes are more popular. Enrollment in evening classes runs as high as 65 students, compared to 25 or 30 in the daytime. Typically, 40 of the 65 will finish an evening class, while only 10 or 15 will finish a day class.

Evening teachers handle twice as many students for less than half the salary. They bring in the bulk of the revenue and are paid a salary (prorated to $20,000 a year with no benefits) less than most high school graduates can command. These are teachers with master’s or even doctoral degrees and 10 to 25 years of experience.

These are the teachers Valley and Pierce propose to lay off.

RICK ROFMAN

Van Nuys