To the Discredit of Our Colleges

It’s not surprising that UC Berkeley will not accept Moorpark College English credits. One must question the quality of the classes given by instructors who readily admit to watering down course content in order to maintain the “packed classes” referred to by Moorpark College’s division director for humanities.

It is understandable that the English instructors want to assure job security for their positions, which average only 20 classroom hours per week, with salaries in excess of $50,000 per year. Perhaps the “great strain on the faculty” could be alleviated if the instructor sabbaticals, which allow instructors to pursue on a full-time basis (and at three-quarters salary from the taxpayers) their side businesses, were eliminated.

In this current crisis of educational funding at all levels, it is appalling that our taxpayer dollars are being squandered on such shoddy teaching. The quality of instruction at our community colleges should not be allowed to be compromised by the self-serving ethics of the instructors and of the administration.

W.T. McFARLEN, Thousand Oaks