By David E. Balch, Rio Hondo College On January 29, FACCC-sponsored AB 1171 (Patel) passed the California State Assembly, marking a pivotal step toward equitable health care for part-time community college faculty. AB 1171 addresses a persistent equity gap by strengthening the Part-Time Community College Faculty Health Insurance Program, preserving unused program funds for future…

By FACCC President Sarah Thompson On May 19, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted to grant exceptions to the 50% Law for three districts: Napa Valley, San Mateo, and Calbright. Why does this matter? The 50% Law exists to ensure a meaningful portion of college funding goes toward classroom instruction. If districts can…

By Shruthi Pradeep, Las Positas College Student Data is a definitive force when it comes to legislation, but when your legislation affects real people, what happens to the outliers? Under AB 1705, non-transfer-level math and English courses have been eliminated in the hope that more, though not all, students will transfer or graduate faster. There…

By FACCC President Sarah Thompson This is going to be a good year for California’s community colleges. Prop 98 funds are coming in higher than originally projected. While much of this funding is one-time money, it still represents additional resources for California’s community college system. The Governor’s May Revise adds to the rosiness, proposing the…

By Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, FACCC Past President, and Peter Morse, FACCC Retirement Committee Chair A recent payroll issue at a Southern California community college has highlighted an essential but often overlooked aspect of CalSTRS contributions that could affect faculty members statewide, particularly those hired after January 1, 2013. The Issue: Compensation Caps and Over-Deductions Faculty members…

By Michael Peterson, Las Positas College Recently, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a Gates Foundation-funded report: Has Universal Access to Transfer-Level Courses Changed Student Outcomes at California Community Colleges? Many positive trends are noted in the report, including completion rates for transfer-level math courses, especially statistics and liberal arts math. The authors…

By FACCC Past-President Wendy Brill-Wynkoop Two critical sets of federal regulations, AHEAD and AIM, signal a profound and existential shift in higher education policy that threatens the comprehensive mission of community colleges. Both of these regulations establish new punitive accountability metrics that judge institutions strictly by workforce-aligned return on investment (ROI) across all academic programs,…

By Carmen Payne, Cerritos College In September 2025, the U.S. Department of Education announced the elimination of $350 million in funding for Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), arguing that the grants are “discriminatory” because they restrict eligibility to institutions that meet “government-mandated racial quotas.” Months later, Congress passed, and President Trump later signed, a federal spending…

By FACCC Vice President Leslie Banta, Mendocino College In 1988, AB 1725 (Vasconcellos) required that minimum qualifications be established for faculty at California’s community colleges. The process for establishing the minimum qualifications must be jointly agreed upon by the academic senate and the governing board. As early as the second edition of the Minimum Qualifications…

By Amy Leonard As artificial intelligence (AI) tools rapidly enter classrooms, colleges and universities are faced with a pressing question: how can AI be integrated in ways that support learning without undermining fairness, academic integrity, or skill development? To better understand student perspectives, a survey was conducted with 299 composition students at De Anza College…