By skyforbes 
Outrage ensued online when Bloomberg reported that Miami Dade College suggested its “cash-strapped professors get Medicaid.” Unfortunately, professors having to rely on government assistance isn’t that uncommon. I know, because I’m one of them.
As an adjunct professor, I make $26,000 a year teaching our best and brightest full-time at two state universities. As a single father of two, this puts my family well below the income needed to cover basic costs in Florida. I continue to teach despite the tremendous strain this places on me and my family, because of my care for my students and the future of our state and communities.
Any educator will tell you that they started teaching to impact the lives of their students and their communities. This is also one of the primary reasons teachers across the country have taken to their state capitals demanding higher wages, student loan debt relief, better education funding, and a union.
From Pre-K to PhD programs, Florida must be next.
By earning my doctorate, I joined others who face mounting college debt. When school lets out for the summer for my children, I face the herculean task of finding childcare I can afford while I teach. And when it comes to healthcare, most adjuncts are not afforded the same benefits as other full-time faculty, even though we often teach the same course load. That truth is ever apparent through Miami Dade College’s decision to encourage their adjunct and full-time faculty to utilize a state funded assistance program if they want health care coverage for their dependents.
What I describe as my reality is unfortunately not unique. A majority of adjuncts across Florida and our country make low wages for full-time course loads. Nationally, 25% of part-time faculty rely on the same public assistance. And in Florida things are even worse, with nearly 31% of adjunct faculty relying on public assistance in 2016. Frankly, the percentage of educators who need to rely on any form of public assistance should be zero.
Last month, Governor DeSantis released his budget, proposing a less than 1% increase for university level education, and only 4% for public colleges. This is despite a projected $842 million increase in state revenue over the next two years. The governor has decided to continue the state’s years-long trend in chronically underfunding higher education, while also maintaining a $98 million cut to Medicaid — part of the very program Miami Dade College is urging its professors to depend on for their children’s coverage.
Higher education funding cuts by legislators have put pressure on colleges which in turn have increased tuition and fees. In Florida, tuition at public colleges and universities has risen 59 percent since 2008, while state funding per student is down 13 percent. It is unrealistic for the state of Florida to continue this practice putting an ultimate burden on students and educators.
This is why faculty across the state are coming together and demanding that legislators in Tallahassee do better to expand financial accessibility for students to attend college by fully funding our state’s public college and university system and its educators. This will ensure that our educators and our students are best positioned to improve the quality of education and our workforce for the collective benefit of our state.
Whether it is the student or the educator, Tallahassee is sending a message that it wants to prevent anyone from having an equal chance at success. Florida must do better to expand financial accessibility for students to attend college by fully funding the cost of higher education and its educators.
Jarad Fennell is an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida. He is a member of SEIU’s Florida Public Services Union.