Monday, October 28, 2013

Community colleges cut adjunct hours to avoid Obamacare

Impact amounts to a pay cut, teachers say

As the federal health reform known as Obamacare takes hold, many community colleges in Maryland and across the country are capping the hours of adjunct faculty — who make up the bulk of their teaching force — to avoid paying for the instructors' health insurance.

The limits put the adjunct teachers on the leading edge of fallout from the Affordable Care Act, whose critics predict that a range of employers will increasingly rely on part-timers to sidestep insurance requirements that go into effect in 2015.

Cash-strapped community colleges in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Howard and Prince George's counties, among other places, have pre-emptively limited adjuncts' hours, starting this year. Expanding health coverage to such instructors would cost schools across the state $17 million, officials at the Maryland Association of Community Colleges estimated.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-adjuncts-20131026,0,6060361.story#ixzz2j3bNKoT9

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