Subscriber Comments for
Tin Cup for Adult Ed?

Most recent Comments first | (reverse order)

COMMENT 326027	2012-09-29 05:35 PM
A teaching moment. The old SBCC board knew how to save money, but lose elections. The new board knows how to spend money, and win elections. SBCC Econ 101.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-29 10:06 AM
Let's pay adult ed teacher for class preparation time. $65/hour x 2 hour class x 10 week term x two more hours preparation time at $65 per hour divided by 20 students equals $130 class fee, plus administrative overhead for room use, utilities, payroll, publicity, enrollment registration. Therefore the average class that supports teacher's class room and preparation time will cost a minimum of $150 per term. Okay.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-29 09:03 AM
Don't be fooled. Pay rates for adult ed instructors are $55-65/ hour. Even higher if you teach at the Parent-Child Workshops. SBCC adult ed teacher employment contract emphasizes this is exclusively a part-time, at-will job and to not rely on it ever for permanent employment. Teaching adult ed is a privilege, and not a right. If those who want to teach adult ed classes don't like the terms offered, they should not accept employment there. Anyone who wants to pick up $55-65 an hour teaching a non-credit class should consider applying because the program is badly in need of fresh blood and re-invigorated offerings. Adult ed students at the new Center for Life Long Learning need to understand the largest part of these new class fees go directly to the adult ed instructor. If you think the instructor is worth it, you will be happy to pay. If not, it is time to take those classes out of the adult ed inventory.
ACF	2012-09-28 07:07 PM
Don't be fooled. $65/hour is ONLY for the in-class hour or two. No compensation for preparation, counseling, advising students (depending on the type of class). Even a skilled teacher/professor has to prepare classes, tailor them to the audience, etc. Could you live on, say, $185/week?? This kind of part-time job is done for LOVE, not money.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-28 08:40 AM
In better years the state was not running a $20 billion deficit. In better years, the unfunded state pension liabilities were actually making their promised 8% return instead of their current 1% and still having to pay out the promised 8% return benefits. In better years, the prison guard unions and teachers unions were not sucking the life out of the state budget and running a dysfunctional madhouse in Sacramento. SBCC adult ed was no superstar; it was the laughing stock of the state and seen as a greedy spoiled brat. It got what it deserved.
COMMENT 324934	2012-09-27 03:12 PM
902. You only got if half right. The State does subsidize its educational offerings, both credit and non-credit. Here's what you missed: Many of the classes proposed for the new fee- based center are fully fundable by State subsidy. It is just that SBCC does not want to fund them. This information is from the community forum held by Pres Gaskin and VP Freidlander at the Wake Center. In better years (pre2008) the Adult education division enrolled one out of every four adults on the South Coast. It made the local College a superstar. Now the administration wants to convert that popularity into more dollars at the expense of, mostly, senior citizens.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-27 02:46 PM
How can you give pink slips to part-time at will workers? This is a made up issue. All adult ed teachers work at will and need to re-read their employment contract. They need to understand this teaching job was a privilege, because it was never a right. No reason to muddy the issues with this misleading headline.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-27 01:39 PM
Credit classes are a primary mission of community colleges and receive state money to support this mission. Adult ed classes are a secondary mission and receive funding if they are in the state's interests only. It is inappropriate to compare the two and demand they be treated equally.
COMMENT 324856	2012-09-27 01:10 PM
The credit classes that the students pay around $3 per hour to take are subsidized by the state. The tuition that the students pay goes directly to Sacramento who then pays the colleges to teach the class covering all expenses (in theory). The Adult Ed classes that are being transferred to the Center for Lifelong Learning are not subsidized by the state and have to be fully funded by student fees.
COMMENT 324934	2012-09-27 11:59 AM
Students on the main campus pay a bit more than $3.00 per hour of instruction. Continuing Ed / Adult Ed students would be glad to pay at a similar rate. But they are being asked to pay twice that. 757, you are just wrong about the class assortment. S. Wake and other leaders over the years wrote down their vision for a balance of class offerings. You can read it all on the State Chancellors web site.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-27 10:19 AM
As long as adult ed students are willing to pay for these classes and teachers are willing to accept reasonable compensation to teach them, SBCC adult ed will continue. The location of these classes is of secondary importance. Most colleges pay non-credit instructors $25-35 per hour. SBCC non-credit instructors are presently demanding $57 minimum to teach in the Center for LifeLong Learning. Other instructors are suggesting more flexible compensation schedules. Renewable and sustainable is the best model to keep SBCC adult ed healthy now, and well into the future. Subsidized, self-interested, static and stale SBCC adult ed no longer works. Ms Jacobs badly misstates what she claims are the three missions of a community college. What was her real intent? If we go back 90 years, one learns the roots of SBCC adult ed was ESL and citizenship classes for Italian immigrants. SBCC is coming around full circle back to adult ed basics 90 years later.
ESL TEACHER	2012-09-27 10:18 AM
Could the loss of these teachers be the reason that Turning Points in Film was suddenly just cancelled? I found it hard to believe that there were not enough sign-ups, as it only cost $25.00 and was a long-running class that was surely pretty popular.
COMMENT 324743	2012-09-27 09:51 AM
I have been proud and privileged to teach through Adult Ed for over 25 years and understand that the financial crisis now makes it necessary to charge fees for all classes. Having said that, I must admit that I am fearful for the fate of the Schott & Wake Centers. The Schott Center is indeed an old but venerable structure and it's wooden windows need to be repaired and painted. We have all heard rumors that the College has other plans for the buildings use....I hope that we don't lose this wonderful program that used to be one of the best in the country.
COMMENT 324731P	2012-09-27 09:30 AM
$65 an hour! I'm gonna start teaching Adult Ed classes. Life-long learning is one of the things I believe in and want to keep available and affordable. However, reasonable fees to pay for those classes (and lower compensation to the instructors) is reasonable, esp. given that this is a nicety, not a necessity. It is far more important that young people attend college and become more educated and productive members of society, than those of us long beyond college continue our life-long learning heavily subsidized.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-27 09:15 AM
SBCC should not be teaching folks for free to take up expensive hobbies in the first place. State-funded classes should only teach financial independence and stop fostering further state paid dependencies. Life-long learning should not mean life-long state subsidies.
COMMENT 324690P	2012-09-27 08:48 AM
Get over it folks. I got a good public education leading to a decent job. Now I want all of SB's young people to have the same opportunity. We old timers can pay for our hobbies and the kids need to get decent jobs so their taxes will support us - seems logical to me.
COMMENT 324686	2012-09-27 08:45 AM
Adults pay their own way. Period.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-27 07:15 AM
Young credit students at SBCC are on fixed income which is minimum wage part-time or more typically no income at all leaving college with large student loans. These young, hard-working credit students are required to pay $46 per unit. There are no free classes for them. This means each typical 3 unit class costs a young student $138. This is just for one class and to get through college on time they need to take at least 3-4 of them each term. These classes matter to these young students and they find ways to pay for them. Follow the money to the highly paid adult-ed instructors and exceedingly over-paid non-credit parenting class instructors. This isn't about students. It is about preserving highly-paid instructors who in turn get their students to campaign on their behalf.
COMMENT 324628P	2012-09-27 01:56 AM
Ditto to 509. It is getting old. If the classes are worth so much to you - pay for them. The kids pay by the credit hour. Why do you expect your classes to be free? I take several yoga and exercise classes and have no problem at all being asked to pay for them. I will continue to vote for all tax increases to aid education at any level.
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-26 06:06 PM
If SBCC was really smart they would convert Schott in to dorms for Chinese international students. Put in gardens and a pool in the inner courtyard, charge big bucks and turn Schott into a cash cow for the rest of the college.
COMMENT 324529	2012-09-26 05:26 PM
In this time of every deepening fiscal crisis at community colleges, I wonder if SBCC will sell the Wake and Schott Center campuses, then redirect the profits to the main SBCC campus. Possible, yes?
COMMENT 326027	2012-09-26 05:02 PM
A parcel tax could have funded SBCC Adult Ed classes, but K-12 beat SBCC to this demanding Parcel Tax A & B now become permanent and that money can only be spent on city elementary and high schools. Sorry SBCC, you were too late and a few dollars short. K-12 is sucking the life out of local property owners and Jerry Brown will pick the back pockets of everyone else. Vote no on Prop 30 and city school parcel axes A & B, if you want anything left locally to help fund free SBCC Adult Ed classes. Jacobs however is wrong again. The state will be pulling further funding for free SBCC Older Adult crafts classes. Start donating locally, if you wan these classes to remain free. Adult Ed instructors are demanding they keep their $65 an hour jobs teaching these free classes. That is really what all the howling is about. Voters, are you still listening?
COMMENT 324496P	2012-09-26 04:48 PM
Before I can either accept or reject a pundit's point of view I first must know who they are. So, Charmaine, who are you and what makes you so knowledgable about Adult Ed? It is my understanding that due to major funding cuts from Sacramento Adult Eds all over CA are being cut. The whole intent, or so I thought, for gutting SBCC's Board 2 years ago was to save Adult Ed. It appears to me that not even the 4 chosen ones on the Board could stop the process. What makes you think they can stop the process now, tomorrow night? It appears to me to be a done deal going to fee based system.
COMMENT 324471P	2012-09-26 04:15 PM
435-No I think everyone take their chances that you will vote down tax increases. I certainly did and I have students. We all pay taxes that go for things we do not use. The tradeoff is that other people's money is used on things you do use that they do not. No more freebies. If you can afford to own a home in Santa Barbara you can afford to pay for your elective classes if you choose to take them. You do not get to have a short term benefit for everything you pay taxes towards. Welcome to real life.
COMMENT 324435	2012-09-26 03:30 PM
I pay a lot of taxes that get used to provided the educational part of the mission. I get no short term benefit from them as I do not attend SBCC and don't have kids that might. So how about if you for-profit people view the adult program as a way to give back to people like me in order to gain our support for future payments to the college? Otherwise we will be less likely to vote for future funding for the college, as I was against the recent property tax increase that was passed because I could see where this was heading back then.
COMMENT 324434P	2012-09-26 03:28 PM
I recently found computer classes for a teeny fee and I am currently working three days a week towards a "certificate " that will help me to find a job. The classes are full and most of us wouldn't be adverse to paying more for these classes. To take away SBCC classes would be a big disservice to anyone who is trying to garner usable skills to get ahead. I have noticed the wide selection of jewelry making, and other craft classes there, maybe we can get all students to pony up a bit to keep the entire program system alive.
COMMENT 324471P	2012-09-26 03:09 PM
I believe the non-credit and adult ed classes should have a charge associated with them. Why not? The cost of for credit classes is steadily increasing every year and still people are demanding the college provide free classes to them. Guess what? Life is not free. If you want to take a pottery class or learn English, pay for it. If I want to learn another language or learn a skill I certainly expect to have to pay. How do we tell college students they have to expect to graduate with a mountain of debt if they want to amount to anything in life and then turn around and spend money on non-essential classes without charging for them? To those who donate to the college regularly to support these classes remaining free, form a non-profit and pay the fees for the students you wish to support. Take it out of the college's hands. You do not need to hand over your money if the college is not using the way you want them to and the college does not have to provide services it does not believe are in the best interest of its students.

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