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Dec 12, 2022·edited Dec 12, 2022Liked by Robert Reich

The workforce model of U.S. higher education is "past its shelf-life expiration date."

The model was built first of exploding enrollments following WWII and solid student numbers growth through the 1990s. The model started to crack in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Comfortable tenured faculty jobs made possible by the growth gave way to 70%+ of teaching staff being adjunct or "contingent," often not making enough to pay rent and some living in their cars.

To keep the game going the model shifted to free and easy student debt. It was easier to get a student loan than buy a car, which lead to massive run up in student debt. Now the bubble has burst with a decade of declining enrollments with a crash caused with Covid. Plus, one could logically believe that being an Uber driver may be more attractive than being an adjunct faculty member. At least you would have a newer model car.

To add insult to injury, there has been no leadership in Congress. Education committee assignments are often made to the "left-overs," who did not get on the "important" committees such as defense, intelligence, etc. This explains, in part, why the Higher Education Act has not been reauthorized since 2008!

The issues with the U. Cal system are a small tip of an iceberg.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Robert Reich

Professor Reich, thank you for supporting the student workers and all the staff and teachers and Professors of the California higher education system. The public is not aware of the limits of salaries and benefits for teachers at all levels. As a California public school teacher, I spent my own money to earn a Master’s degree so I would not only move higher on the salary schedule but qualify to teach in the public community college system. However, that system was hiring only part-time faculty, two office hours per week, no benefits and less than 12 units of teaching. And no tenure. That’s the clincher. No tenure means no security. No assurance you will have your position next school year, no matter how well you teach. I had to pay off my student loans for my higher degree. So I stayed in the Title 1 program and received a $5,000 dollar payment from federal government for teaching in a low income school for five years. I know people who earned PhDs in English and had to move out of state to teach full-time with benefits. I did teach halftime at the college level at a private school in California. However my goal was to stay in the public system.

That was not an option. There are countless stories of highly qualified candidates who move out of state or teach in private technical schools so they can work and pay off their loans.

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This country was built by people who behaved in one way, exploitive of Indigenous people, women, and people of color, but who dreamed of a better more equal country that valued all citizens. We have yet to really confront and deal with our dark past so we continue to repeat it. Politicians always talk about how much they value children, they are our future, but do little that shows how they value them. Giving a great education is one of the best ways to show we value our children, yet how can you attract and keep great teachers if you don’t pay them? We all agree that over the past 40years the gap between the haves and have nots has grown greater. History tells us that this is when you get more and more rebellion against governments which we have seen here in America. We have lawmakers, and political leaders that have supported this greed. I would like to see all service workers go on strike and demand salaries and benefits that show they are valued. Why should professional athletes, actors, Upper management, etc make so much more money than the workers who make their jobs possible. I am hopeful that there will be more strikes and we will get universal child care, paid leave, sick leave, a livable wage, and respect and concern for the well being of all workers. The countries with the highest happiness quotient, while paying higher taxes, people don’t have to stress about having basic needs met. We need to grow out of the adolescent stage of egocentrism and start caring about our neighbors, our communities, our country, our world.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Robert Reich

My career was spent in k-12 public schools..........upon retirement I was able to spend four years at a local university in administration.........was paid very well (approximately 1/3 more than I had made my final year in k - 12)............yet shocked to learn that instructors, assistant & associate professors made less than most k - 12 teachers. Adjuncts on the rise......vacancies filled by adjuncts & interims. The root cause was in large part the erosion of support from state government.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Robert Reich

As ever the rich, in whom power exists, don't want to leave hold of their pennies. Greed is their religion. What we have we must protect. This is not exclusive to America- it's rampant throughout the world.

"Money, money, money it's a rich man's world!" goes the song. Until economies stop worshipping Mammon little will change. Its a question of values. What matters more? In this case the teacher, lecturer starving to keep moneybags full. It makes me ashamed of humanity.

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when i was pursuing my PhD, i was a student senator and we went on strike for ... health insurance. yeah, we were not viewed as state employees so we had to pay our health insurance costs out of pocket. we did win, eventually.

meanwhile, i had no family or parents to support me by paying rent, etc., so i was getting food from a foodbank or scavenging from university meetings where food was provided, and i was homeless several times, crashing in my office (when i could get away with it.) it was awful. one time, a nurse asked me how i manage, so i told her, and added "after i get my PhD, no one can take THAT away from me, and i'll have a career that i love and care about and i'll never again be unemployed."

i was so incredibly optimistically stupid: i am not only unemployed NOW and have been so for a very long time, but i am UNEMPLOYABLE because, according to potential employers, like starbux, mcdonald's, etc., i am either vastly overqualified, or "differently qualified" and i am seen as a poor employment risk who will leave any job they offer the second i find something better, either something more in line with my career goals, or that pays better.

of course, leaving my education off my job applications leaves me with a giant, gaping hole in my employment record which means ... NO JOB.

so i worked as an adjunct when i could find such temporary jobs, and earned less than poverty wages to teach anatomy and physiology to university students who were studying to become medical doctors.

the entire academic system, which i poured my heart and soul and dreams of a bright future into was a beautiful lie that i stupidly, happily bought into, and i paid a severe price with my career, my health (both my mental and physical health), my utterly completely destroyed self-esteem and (probably) my life.

and the best i can hope for is to be mocked by strangers, as i was when i was homeless. otherwise, i am invisible, as is everyone else who, like me, bought into a predatory academic system under the desire to work hard to improve our lives.

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This is a thing that's been going on for awhile.The people who are teaching our future leaders and workers are treated like dirt,are subject to the whims of idiot governors like Ron DeSatan,and can be fired almost on a moments notice.

And yes,we sure as hell don't hear near enough about it,because the media don't consider this issue a priority,over the silly antics like our so called leadership of our country commits on a daily basis(here's looking at trump and his assortment of foolhardy minions)and inane celebrity gossip that passes as"news"nowadays.

This needs to be addressed country wide,in each state's university systems.This is happening everywhere.

Thank you for standing up for these professors in Cali and calling out not only the billion dollar surplus that could better pay the people teaching our future leaders,but improve everything across the board for everyone,and the governor and the board of regents for sitting on their hands whining why they can't"afford"to help.Baloney.

Hoping it gets better for these folks really soon.

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I was born and raised and educated in California. When I graduated from high school in 1965 the public options for higher education were the UC system, the State College and University system and the community college system. The community colleges were free tuition and the others were low tuition. The quality of all was high. The next year Ronald Reagan was elected governor and the attack on public education (at all levels, but especially the UC system) began. That is the root of modern underfunding of contemporary public universities. Sadly, especially after 1980, the Democrats joined the Republicans in embracing Thatcher/Reaganomics and underfunding got even worse. Many of us had to leave California (something I had never thought I would ever do) to find stable employment in higher education. Sadly, the infection spread and academic work has become tenuous almost everywhere. Good, hardworking scholars are forced to take jobs with no future or leave the profession. Thank you to these members of the academic proletariat for standing up and fighting back. Come on, Gavin. You want to be a progressive and not just some clueless rich guy? Put up some of that budget surplus and stop the scandal of a great public university system being only 10% funded by the public.

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These workers should demand not just living wages, but EXCELLENT wages!

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This is so inspiring! I'm hoping the strikers will get everything they ask for, need, and want. For much too long this has been going on. We need to back the people who provide education as well as regular workers the backing and decent wages they should be getting. And, this should stand. No rolling back on wages or scrimping on benefits! I'm with you all the way folks! It's about time...

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It’s a matter of priorities. Congress is on the verge of passing a $850 Billion dollar defense budget, a huge increase from last year, $858B vs $773B this year but the military claims this will leave them a “hollow force”. If you’re a high school graduate, or just have a GED, 18 years old and with just 6 months of training you can become an LAPD police officer and earn $72,000 a year before overtime. When we hear the titans of industry whining about their situation they claim they need “more incentives”. So I ask, where’s the incentive to go to a first rate university, get a degree or even a graduate degree only to live in poverty? Some may claim the love of knowledge or the process of learning, but unless we reward our real Best and Brightest the advent of the Military Industrial Complex President Eisenhower warned us of is where we’re destined to end up.

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Last time I checked in Florida, some 70 plus percent of teaching was done by adjuncts. No security, no healthcare, no retirement, no tenure. Many need to take outside gigs to pay the rent. And since then the rising rents and food costs are crushing. Scandalous.

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Educational workers on every level from administration to teachers have been over worked and underpaid for years. Here in in Wisconsin it really took hold with governor Walker and act 10. Moral and and support for staff on every level has deteriorated to an all time low in every district. This needs to change soon. I think the government especially the republicans want us to be uneducated so they can take over and we will be an uneducated nation!

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Thank you Robert. I agree with everything you said ... well, higher Ed in Michigan isn’t small potatoes either... but the argument you make for California is exactly the same as one might make for Michigan, or Ohio, or New York. Or others. And it is a tragedy everywhere.

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Americans need full time jobs that pay livable wages not part time jobs like our Congress!

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You are so right Dr. Reich, California has lost sight of it's most valuable asset, educated citizens. I attended the California State University system, my daughter the University of California system. Between the time I graduated with a Masters Degree and my daughter daughter graduated with a Doctorate in Medicine, tuition and the cost of living had sky rocketed. Why? California under Pat Brown (Governor when I arrived in 1961) was a progressive, far sighted administrator. Under Pat Brown we invested in infrastructure, education, and the good of the State. Since then we seem to be governed by greed, selfishness and backward sliding. Our highways, that were the envy of the world in the 1960's and 1970'a are now desperately in need of repair, our bridges are unsafe and the average Californian cannot afford to get a college degree with out burdening themselves for life with student debt. What, so millionaires can snort cocaine? Brag about their bank accounts? I support Governor Newsom, but he is not up to the standard set by Pat Brown. Jerry Brown had his head in the clouds so long it muddled his brain. Gray Davis actually joined the enemy, the wealthy energy industry. The Republican Governors we've had beginning with Ronnie Reagan were determined to change California from a relatively classless society to to a full on caste system a la Europe. Have we no young liberal progressives willing to give a few years of their lives to the benefit of the people instead of chasing the almighty dollar?

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