Confused professors shocked schools are cutting their hours to avoid Obamacare penalt

Little-Acorn

Gold Member
Jun 20, 2006
10,025
2,410
290
San Diego, CA
What goes around, comes around.

Academics who were so pleased that their theories of how the world "should" run are finally being put in place, are as surprised as such people usually are to find their ideals don't work in the real world.

The only thing I wonder about is:

How many times do we have to keep trying this? How many repeats of people being shocked, shocked do we have to go through, before we can finally get back to doing things they ways they actually work?

------------------------------------------------

Confused professors shocked schools are cutting their hours to avoid Obamacare penalties | AEIdeas

Confused professors shocked schools are cutting their hours to avoid Obamacare penalties

Marc Thiessen | January 23, 2013, 9:46 am

Barack Obama is a former adjunct professor of constitutional law, and no group has been more solidly supportive of his liberal agenda than the professorial class. So it is a sweet irony that the latest group getting hammered by the mandates of Obamacare are … wait for it … adjunct professors.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The federal health-care overhaul is prompting some colleges and universities to cut the hours of adjunct professors. [...] The Affordable Care Act requires large employers to offer a minimum level of health insurance to employees who work 30 hours a week or more starting in 2014, or face a penalty. The mandate is a particular challenge for colleges and universities, which increasingly rely on adjuncts to help keep costs down as states have scaled back funding for higher education.

A handful of schools, including Community College of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania and Youngstown State University in Ohio, have curbed the number of classes that adjuncts can teach in the current spring semester to limit the schools’ exposure to the health-insurance requirement.

The professors are understandably confused. Robert Balla, an adjunct professor of English at Stark State College, in North Canton, Ohio received a letter in which he was told that “in order to avoid penalties under the Affordable Care Act…employees with part-time or adjunct status will not be assigned more than an average of 29 hours per week.” He told the Journal that the move cut his $40,000 salary by about $2,000 and that he cannot afford health insurance.

“I think it goes against the spirit of the [health-care] law,” Mr. Balla said. “In education, we’re working for the public good, we are public employees at a public institution; we should be the first ones to uphold the law, to set the example.”

A spokeswoman for Stark State explained the realities of the market. The new rules were necessary “to maintain the fiscal stability of the college. There are a lot of penalties involved if adjuncts go over their 29 hours-per-week average. The college can be fined and the fines are substantial.”

Really? Substantial penalties? You don’t say.

You can just imagine the outraged conversations in the faculty lounge now: “We’re professors. I thought stuff like this only happened to manual laborers at Wendy’s and Taco Bell!”

Looks like the academy is finally getting a lesson in the costs of big government liberalism.
 
It's a trend. The voter cohorts who most fervently support Obama are the major victims of ObamaCare.

A trend...and a Karmic Payback.
 
Fewer working hours equals more leisure time.

And what is more important than time?
 
What goes around, comes around.

Academics who were so pleased that their theories of how the world "should" run are finally being put in place, are as surprised as such people usually are to find their ideals don't work in the real world.

The only thing I wonder about is:

How many times do we have to keep trying this? How many repeats of people being shocked, shocked do we have to go through, before we can finally get back to doing things they ways they actually work?

------------------------------------------------

Confused professors shocked schools are cutting their hours to avoid Obamacare penalties | AEIdeas

Confused professors shocked schools are cutting their hours to avoid Obamacare penalties

Marc Thiessen | January 23, 2013, 9:46 am

Barack Obama is a former adjunct professor of constitutional law, and no group has been more solidly supportive of his liberal agenda than the professorial class. So it is a sweet irony that the latest group getting hammered by the mandates of Obamacare are … wait for it … adjunct professors.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The federal health-care overhaul is prompting some colleges and universities to cut the hours of adjunct professors. [...] The Affordable Care Act requires large employers to offer a minimum level of health insurance to employees who work 30 hours a week or more starting in 2014, or face a penalty. The mandate is a particular challenge for colleges and universities, which increasingly rely on adjuncts to help keep costs down as states have scaled back funding for higher education.

A handful of schools, including Community College of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania and Youngstown State University in Ohio, have curbed the number of classes that adjuncts can teach in the current spring semester to limit the schools’ exposure to the health-insurance requirement.

The professors are understandably confused. Robert Balla, an adjunct professor of English at Stark State College, in North Canton, Ohio received a letter in which he was told that “in order to avoid penalties under the Affordable Care Act…employees with part-time or adjunct status will not be assigned more than an average of 29 hours per week.” He told the Journal that the move cut his $40,000 salary by about $2,000 and that he cannot afford health insurance.

“I think it goes against the spirit of the [health-care] law,” Mr. Balla said. “In education, we’re working for the public good, we are public employees at a public institution; we should be the first ones to uphold the law, to set the example.”

A spokeswoman for Stark State explained the realities of the market. The new rules were necessary “to maintain the fiscal stability of the college. There are a lot of penalties involved if adjuncts go over their 29 hours-per-week average. The college can be fined and the fines are substantial.”

Really? Substantial penalties? You don’t say.

You can just imagine the outraged conversations in the faculty lounge now: “We’re professors. I thought stuff like this only happened to manual laborers at Wendy’s and Taco Bell!”

Looks like the academy is finally getting a lesson in the costs of big government liberalism.

Big Education is just being greedy with its profits. Oh, wait a minute.......
 
I'm outraged that these idiots are willing to work as adjuncts for only 40k a year. Why are they working at a college that pays so low a salary?
 
Given that 1 out of 2 Millennials is either under or unemployed, $40K per year obviously looks good to some of them.
 
I'm outraged that these idiots are willing to work as adjuncts for only 40k a year. Why are they working at a college that pays so low a salary?

Maybe in a rare moment of self-evaluation and reflection they are realizing that that is all they are worth.

And they actually overestimating themselves.
 
I'm outraged that these idiots are willing to work as adjuncts for only 40k a year. Why are they working at a college that pays so low a salary?

Maybe in a rare moment of self-evaluation and reflection they are realizing that that is all they are worth.

And they actually overestimating themselves.
LOL

Depends on what they are teaching, no doubt.
 
I'm outraged that these idiots are willing to work as adjuncts for only 40k a year. Why are they working at a college that pays so low a salary?

Those who can do and those who can't teach. Simple concept.
I suppose. I have been 'doing' all My life. I was entertaining notions of becoming a professor. But not at that pay rate. LOL

Of course, I don't know what these adjuncts are teaching and that may be a factor. It is probably a college on basket weaving and the 69 ways of using plastic wrap in sexual liaisons between lesbians.

I know a few who'd do that one for free. *chuckling*
 
Fewer working hours equals more leisure time.

And what is more important than time?

Fewer working hours - at least in a liberal and union free world - equals less money.

And what is more important than money?

Time is more important.

Glad you like it. Now these folks will have a lot more time to spend walking around outdoors enjoying nature. Cuz they're going to get kicked out of their apartments for not being able to pay the rent.

But hey, money's not so important. Someone on this thread told me so, so it must be true. :confused:
 

Forum List

Back
Top