Part-time instructors at California’s community colleges have to work multiple jobs to make a living wage, but some still don’t have enough health insurance.
A state fund to aid them hasn’t been increased for decades from $490,000 a year, but now Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes to add $200 million annually. While the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office says there’s no data to justify that spending, a union has collected survey information that could help the governor’s case.
The California Federation of Teachers gathered survey results in 2022 from about 2,500 part-time instructors, almost all of them teachers at community colleges — a sizable share of the roughly 35,000 part-timers employed across the state’s sprawling community college system. The survey shows that 6% of part-time faculty don’t have health insurance from any source.
