Over the past few years, as cash-strapped states and school districts have faced tough budget decisions, spending on teacher compensation has come under the microscope. The underlying question is whether, when you take everything into account, today's teachers are fairly paid, underpaid, or overpaid. In this forum, two pairs of respected…

In this paper, the authors call for an approach that, in recognizing the economic realities facing most institutions, attempts to put aside objections that funding is simply not available to support an expansion of the current tenure system. In calling for the changes in faculty working conditions, the authors recognize that change will…

A combination of destructive trends in higher education--shrinking state budgets, stagnant student aid, the growth of corporate-style management, the overuse and exploitation of contingent faculty, increasing workloads and attacks on academic freedom--is weakening the educational integrity and professionalism of American colleges and universities.…

This paper, from the Faculty Association of Community and Technical Colleges (FACTC) in Washington, addresses the issue of part-time faculty employment in the state's community colleges. In fall 1997, there were 3,019 full-time and 5,256 part-time instructors in Washington's two year colleges. Departments that rely most heavily on part-time…

Contracts that base the compensation and job security of teachers on seniority may promote the goals of public education more effectively than performance-based contracts. Public school teaching is a very complex process requiring constant adaptation to changing students, situations, methods, and dynamics. Measurement of teacher performance under…