Texas Education Corp. bought Southern Technical College in Birmingham last July.
The private trade school lost $235,000 last year and $62,000 in January, according to budget statements the Texas Education Corp. supplied to union negotiators.
At present, the school is deadlocked in pay negotiations with the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store, Services Union that instructors voted to join last December.
Chris House, faculty representative for Southern Technical College, said that the American Federation of Teachers recommended the union as an aggressive one that could carry the trade school instructors through a long legal battle.
The latest belt-tightening measure came last week when the school slashed its instructors' pay. Faculty warned that the cut undermines the education provided to students.
The cut—15 percent—will force out experienced instructors who can be replaced with cheaper—but less qualified—newcomers, according to House. The cut sliced House's earnings to less than $9 an hour.
House also contended that the Texas Education Corp. has already fired several experienced instructors to help balance the books of the financially troubled operation. House also said that the company is forcing remaining instructors to teach an excessive number of classes, some of which they are not qualified to teach.
Wayne Apostolico, director of operations for Texas Education, said that the school was not seeking less costly replacements for more experienced faculty and that it was merely trying to straighten out the school's finances. He denied that some classes had unqualified instructors.
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Apostolico noted that the school had 163 students, too few to support so many instructors. He said that the school now has 12 full-time and part-time instructors. He also said that the school is starting courses that will attract more students.
Apostolico agreed that some instructors taught a wide variety of courses. But he said this did not detract from the educational mission. He noted that computer-aided drafting instructors, for example, were qualified to teach typing since they used a keyboard.
Apostolico blamed union activities for disrupting the educational atmosphere. He said that he would not discuss the school's finances except to say that the company had no plans to close the school.
Quotation from Apostolico: "It's our intention to provide a good, quality education. We recognize as a company that if we don't place students, we'll go out of business."
Quotation from House: "Instructors can't stay long for that kind of money (as reflected by the cuts). The company will probably make the school profitable. I don't know if they'll make it sound educationally.
"There is a lot of pressure to teach classes you don't think you're qualified for. You can either teach them or leave, and a lot of times you can't afford to leave."
Ruffus Hartley, 58, said that he has taught board drafting for 15 years. He took his last typing classes in the 1940s, but was forced to teach typing.
House said that Hartley didn't even know how to turn on the electric typewriters.
Quotation from Hartley: "I certainly was not qualified to teach typing." Hartley was dismissed last fall.
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Exercise 20.3
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2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education