Whereas, The 50% law mandates that at least half of a district’s unrestricted operational expenditures must be used for direct instruction, excluding the support services provided by counseling and library faculty from the calculation;
Whereas, The Academic Senate has passed a variety of resolutions concerning the 50% law and fully supports a higher percentage which would include all faculty on the same side of the calculation;
Whereas, A survey of expenditures for counseling, library, and other non-instructional faculty done by California Teachers Association/Community College Association (CTA/CCC) for 2006-2007 indicates that districts were spending an average of 4% on these positions; and
Whereas, Concerted efforts to abolish the 50% law are likely to gain traction in difficult economic times, and a specific proposal is vitally needed to counter such efforts;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges support a change in California Education Code §84362(d) to include counseling and library faculty in the calculation and to increase the mandate for expenditure of unrestricted operational funds from a minimum of 50% to 54% and work with other constituency groups to move this recommendation forward.
MSR Disposition: Referred to the Executive Committee to research the data, craft a new resolution that considers the ideas included in all of the referred resolutions and our previous position in resolution 8.04 S01 and bring back to the Spring 2010 plenary session.