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Washington SB 5663 and the Future of Online Education at Washington’s Community Colleges: Faculty and Union Concerns

teacher instructing an online class

February 8, 2025

The Washington State Legislature is currently considering Senate Bill 5663 (SB 5663), a proposal aimed at creating a statewide virtual campus for community and technical colleges. While this bill seeks to expand online education, it also presents serious concerns for faculty and union members regarding workload, job security, and the potential redistribution of funding away from local institutions.

The full text of the bill can be found [here]. If passed, it would allow community and technical colleges (CTCs) to market online courses beyond their districts, facilitate cross

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Faculty Concerns Regarding President Singh’s Interview in Puget Sound Business Journal

The precarious state of higher education, particularly in relation to consolidation, financial pressures, and governance shifts.

January 31, 2025

Is higher education in the U.S. facing consolidation? In a January 31, 2025, Puget Sound Business Journal interview, Edmonds College President Amit Singh argues that there are "too many colleges" and suggests that smaller institutions not aligned with workforce demands may not survive. He emphasizes an "outside-in" approach to decision-making, prioritizing employer needs over traditional academic structures.

What does this mean for faculty, shared governance, and academic program funding? Read our full analysis of the interview and its implications for faculty job security.

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Budget Biennium Action

June 3, 2024

The new budget biennium is coming next year! This means that in February 2025, the state legislature will be making big decisions about how the state will distribute funds for community colleges. Before those decisions are made, legislators will receive a list of recommendations from the Governor, who will receive recommendations from the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and the Washington State AFT. These recommendation processes take time, so we need to start showing our support now if we want the SBCTC and Governor Inslee to ask the legislature for what

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60:40? Really?

The president of our college wants our ratio of associate faculty to full-time faculty to be 60:40. Dr. Singh said exactly this in a meeting with the Faculty Senate in February 2024 and also confirmed that this has been his intent since he was hired. And he’s been successful! He has reduced the percentage of full-time faculty as measured by FTEF to 47%, which is less than many other community colleges in our area.

FTF Percentage 2022-23, Edmonds at 47 percent

However, reducing the percentage of full-time faculty that teach classes at our college is the wrong choice for student success. We know that increasing the percentage of full-time

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Fully Funded COLAs

Thanks to all of the faculty, both at our college and across the state, who came to Olympia on February 20 and to rallies on April 11 to ask the state to fully fund our Cost of Living Adjustments.
 
As a result, we will see COLAs of 8.9% in 2023-24 and 5.87% in 2024-25!

What unions do

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In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.