I checked my mailbox at DeKalb Technical College last month, and found a memo that cut my hours by 55 percent.
The new fiat from the Technical College System of Georgia limits the number of hours that a part-time employee can work to less than 20 hours a week. Previously, this 19.5 hour limit was invoked for retired teachers who were collecting a state pension, as a safeguard against double-dipping.
I now teach an English as a Second Language class in the mornings, three days a week; that’s 12 hours. I also teach an evening ESL class, three days a week; that’s nine hours.
And, depending on the volume of papers, I grade GED essays on Monday and Friday mornings; that’s six hours a week.
Under the new rules, I cannot teach both classes at DeKalb Tech because that would be 21 hours.
Until I read further down the memo, my first thought was that I could make up some hours by reading more GED essays.
But, no; I cannot teach at DeKalb Tech and also work for another entity within the TCSG. I cannot work at another technical college or for any state agency. So, I can only teach the morning classes for 12 hours. Goodbye to 15 hours of work and pay.
This edict will affect an estimated 50 fellow workers: ESL and GED teachers and support staff at DeKalb Tech.
I don’t know the individual impact to my fellow workers of losing pay, but I have to find another job and many of my colleagues will have to do the same. These are people who have given, and give daily, more than the usual measure of devotion to their students; who have had one 50-cent increase in 10 years; who work at home and before and after class; who have the experience to know the right hammer to drive in a single nail of knowledge; and who are now so arbitrarily disenfranchised.
At the Doraville campus where I work, our dedicated students travel to school, some from as far away as Lithonia, Duluth, Marietta, College Park and Lilburn, some taking two buses, a train and almost three hours to get to school.
Some come to the morning class after working all night, most of the evening students after working a full day.
They so eager to learn, they put the students I taught in high school and middle school to shame. Don’t they deserve the best teachers?
I have had the immigrant experience twice, once in England and again in the United States, and English is my second language, so I understand what ESL students need.
My classes get grammar, writing, reading and conversation but also lessons in American culture. Beside English, I am fluent in Polish, which helps with Russian students, and remember a bit of French, so that I can speak to students from Haiti, Congo and other Francophone countries.
I have an academic degree in English and a vocational master’s in English Instruction and yet, even with this ideal combination of education, it seems that I can be replaced by a new hire with no experience.
How will this help the mission of the college? The students?
I might understand this policy, if some money were saved. But new people will have to be hired, while all those people experienced in teaching and administration will vanish from the classrooms and offices.
And, once again, through the state, we will hear the slap-slap-slap of Bozo shoes, as Georgia races against Alabama and Mississippi for last place in every educational measure.
Janusz Maciuba teaches at DeKalb Technical College.
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