Left Turns

Each day we learn more about the devastating effects of the presidents health care law. From website glitches and privacy concerns to cancelled health plans and higher premiums, the laws fatal flaws are exceedingly obvious. And the problems in the law arent just hurting families, businesses, and workers theyre also having a detrimental impact on our nations education system.

News reports from across the country detail ObamaCares unintended consequences for schools, colleges, and universities:

Utah: ObamaCare dropping full-timers at schools, local governments (Fox News)
Between 1,000 and 1,200 of teacher aides, substitute teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and security officers and other workers in the Granite School District outside Salt Lake City, Utah, will see their part-time hours reduced due to the costs of health reform.

Virginia: New ACA regs force some college adjunct pay cuts (Washington Times)
The changes in store for about a quarter of Virginias 9,100 adjunct faculty members have less to do with health insurance a benefit they dont receive anyway than with the opportunity to teach enough class hours to pay the billsAdjunct instructors teach at least two-thirds of the classes for the statewide enrollment of nearly 289,000 students.

New York: ObamaCare impacting how hudson valley schools deal with substitute teachers (Hudson Valley Reporter) 
To avoid budget-busting penalties, school districts must keep a close watch on substitutes hours and whether they becomeeligible for benefits. Who is really being punished is the students, he [Christopher Prill] said. We might have one sub that is most qualified or fit for a certain subject, but may not be called because they have too many hours on the books. The travesty is we are making a decision not to put the best teacher in front of the class.

New Hampshire: Adjunct professors protest limit on work related to health care law (Concord Monitor) 
The number of courses adjunct professors at the Community College System of New Hampshire can teach will be limited next semester, capping potential earnings at about $10,000 for some who use the jobs as their main source of income. We all applauded when the news came in that (the law) passedI didnt think it would go this way, he [Craig Lange] said.

Indiana: Health care law poses challenges for districts (Education Week) 
The Vigo County School Corporation, a 15,500-student district in Indiana, shaved the hours of about 40 percent of its 1,400 support-staff employees. Insuring them would have cost the district, which has a total budget of about $150 million, an additional $6 million a year.

Maryland: Community colleges cut adjunct hours to avoid ObamaCare (The Baltimore Sun) 
Cash-strapped community colleges in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Howard and Prince George's counties, among other places, have pre-emptively limited adjuncts' hours, starting this year. Expanding health coverage to such instructors would cost schools across the state $17 million, officials at the Maryland Association of Community Colleges estimated.

Imposing a fundamentally flawed and costly law on our schools is clearly not in the best interests of teachers, parents, taxpayers, and students. Next week the House Committee on Education and the Workforce will hold a hearing to learn more about how the health care law is affecting our nations education system. More details on the hearing will be posted here.

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