My employer is deciding whether or not to forbid us adjuncts from teaching more than three classes per semester next spring. The Affordable Care Act states that people who work more that 30 hours/week must be provided with health insurance. The Federal Government believes that we spend two hours in prep for every hour in front of the class. Therefore, my employer is talking about restricting our classes to three.
The current recommended maximum load is four classes, for which a single person earns about 140% of the Federal poverty level. In practice many of us teach five or six classes, which is enough to keep our chins above water if we're not hit with medical bills.
From what I can tell, the lower 2.5 levels of Administration are fighting this, and may be able to nudge the max classes to four. The state is in the hands of the Teahad, and over half the citizens like it that way. A large minority of my colleagues. The county has just declared a similar policy for its part-time workers. A knock-on effect is that people are growing to hate the ACA, and will be very receptive to politicians who posture against ACA in 2014.
Does anyone have any recommendations?