David Lau
Vergara v. CTA Is Over
Back in April, a California Appeals Court overturned the Vergara decision from 2014, in which a lower court had fundamentally thrown out the tenure protections of the K-12 Public Education system in the state. Now this past summer, the California Supreme Court has finally put the Vergara case to rest by upholding the Appeals Court’s ruling and leaving in place basic tenure, firing, and staffing rules for the California K-12 public schools. (The Vergara case did not concern tenure or firing at California’s community colleges.) The case, however, has not been without consequences, as it did drag on for many years. As CFT president Joshua Pechthalt noted, “The teacher shortage facing California has been stoked by the Vergara case, the expensive publicity machine surrounding it, and the constant attacks by so-called reformers on teachers and public education.”
Update on ACCJC
ACCJC, the embattled and largely discredited accreditor for California Community Colleges, released a spate of new sanctions this past June: two colleges (Siskiyous and LA Southwest) received warnings, while eight colleges received an 18 month reaffirmation of accreditation, a recently minted ACCJC category of semi-sanction. Additionally, ACCJC has stepped into the purview of at least one faculty senate by calling for “pedagogical oversight” in accreditation of distance education. All this comes as the US Department of Education continues to review and possibly strip ACCJC of its ability to act as an accreditor. In early August, notorious commission head Barbara Beno sent out requests for letters of support to many different administrators and faculty members as ACCJC continues to appeal previous rulings against them by the DOE. By contrast, former CFT President Martin Hittelman requested that faculty and administrators write against ACCJC in the appeal process. The major problem ACCJC faces?They are no longer a widely accepted accreditor in the state based on their many years of egregious mishandling of accreditation, most famously at City College San Francisco, where they didn’t follow their own bylaws in the process that nearly led to the closure of the largest campus in the California Community College system. The DOE will review ACCJC again this December when the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Improvement meets.
Faculty Locked Out at Long Island University
Long Island University faculty found out they were to be locked out of their jobs this Labor Day weekend, losing both pay and health benefits. The faculty union, an AFT local, is deadlocked in brutal negotiations with their employer, whose contract demands include reducing hours and benefits for adjuncts as well as reducing benefits for new full-timers. The administration also wants to impose a new onerous post-tenure review process that would effectively destroy both the job and intellectual protections afforded by traditional tenure. All this is being done in the name of improving the bond rating of LIU. The lockout is an unprecedented development in higher education’s numerous contract struggles. In the face of these scorched earth tactics the union has reaffirmed its commitment to its members and the unacceptable contract has been voted down by a wide margin. With no resolution in sight, LIU has hired strikebreaking scabs to teach this first week of classes. LIU students are also organizing a walkout in solidarity with their professors.