Tag: child care

The 2021 American Relief Plan Act: What you should know

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 signed by the President last Thursday is an extensive document that will assist schools, our students, their families, neighbors and businesses in the community surrounding TU campuses, alums, and most (if not all) of us. 

There are significant provisions highlighted below that members of the TAUP bargaining unit should be aware of.  You can search for further details in the Act’s full text and see a summary of all of the provisions here.

 

State Funding

“The bill requires each state receiving K-12 funds to maintain spending in fiscal year 2022 and 2023 on higher education, at least at the proportionate levels of the state’s spending on those categories relative to the state’s overall spending, averaged over fiscal years 2017, 2018, and 2019.”  The American Association of Public and Land Grant Universities Analysis of the ARPA 2021

 

Funds for Institutions of Higher Ed and Students

This chart compares funding from past relief acts to the American Rescue Plan Act and clarifies how funds are to be spent.

Temple should be receiving about $78M from the ARPA

    1. Half of the funds will go directly to students
    2. The other half can be used to defray expenses associated with coronavirus including: 
      1. Payroll, including re-hiring furloughed and laid off employees 
      2. Reimbursement for expenses already incurred 
      3. Technology costs associated with a transition to distance education
      4. Faculty and staff trainings
      5. Lost revenue 
      6. Make additional financial aid grants to students
    3. Institutions must use a portion of their allocation for: 
      1. Implementing evidence-based practices to monitor and suppress coronavirus in accordance with public health guidelines; and 
      2. Conduct direct outreach to financial aid applicants about the opportunity to receive a financial aid adjustment due to the recent unemployment of a family member or independent student, or other circumstances

 

Funding for Research and Creative Work

The National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and LIbrary Services are among a number of organizations where funding has been increased and the usual spending timelines for the use of these funds have been extended.

 

Stimulus Payments

Cutting to the chase: you can calculate your stimulus payment here. The ARPA’s stimulus includes dependents regardless of their age.

 

Student Loan Forgiveness Support

The ARPA provides additional tax relief for those who have their student loans forgiven between December 31, 2020 and January 1, 2026.

When certain student loans are forgiven, the “forgiven” sum may be added to the individual’s gross income for that year, creating an extraordinary tax burden.  The ARPA removes that tax for loans forgiven within the stated five year period.  All federal student loans, and certain private education and institutional loans, will be eligible.

 

 Changes in Eligibility and Premiums for Obamacare and Help with COBRA

If your health insurance is provided through the ACA (Obamacare), your premium rates will decrease due to ARPA’s increased subsidies detailed here. The changes are retroactive to January 1, 2021, so those who are already enrolled should receive compensation for their 2021 payments.

You can calculate what your premium would be under the current plan here.

To sign up or to change your plan, go to Healthcare.gov.  Even if you earned too much to qualify in the past, you may qualify now. 

For individuals who will lose work and want to maintain their current health plan between April 1st and September 30th of 2021, employers or insurers must cover 6 months of COBRA benefits and will receive a tax credit to offset the costs. More info here.

 

Child Tax Credit

The expanded Child Tax Credit will reduce child poverty in the U.S. by more than 40% and will be available to most people who need help to pay for the care of children under 13 or other dependents.  You can calculate your tax credit here.

The credit for the first six months of the year will be applied to income taxes at the end of the year. In July, checks will be sent monthly.  Credits range from $500 to $3600 per child depending on their age, and the credit begins to decrease for those with incomes above $112,500. More helpful information here.

 

Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit

To help people work, the Child and Dependent Care Credit can offer 50% of up to $8,000 in caregiving expenses and up to $16,000 for the care of two or more dependents.  Certain family members do not qualify as caregivers for the credit. Child care is for children under 13 and dependent care must be for a dependent who has lived with you for more than six months and is physically or mentally incapable of self-care. More info here.

 

Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts

ARPA offers an increase from $5000 to $10,500 as the maximum amount that can be contributed on a tax-free basis to a Dependent Care Reimbursement/Flexible Spending Account.  For married individuals filing separately, the increase is from $2,500 to $5,250. Follow the link for Information on Temple’s Dependent Care/Flexible Spending Account Benefit.

 

Unemployment

The ARPA extends Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and programs.  

In the past year, the PEUC benefit (Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation) extended UI benefits for those who had exhausted their initial claim. With the ARPA, individuals may now receive up to 79 weeks of benefits.  

The new PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) program for self-employed individuals, gig workers and others who have not qualified for assistance in the past will be extended from 50 to 79 weeks, until September 6th.

Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) has been the federal government’s weekly unemployment supplement. It will continue to be $300 per week until September 6th.  

Individuals who have received Unemployment in 2020 will not have to pay taxes on $10,200 of the funds received. Couples who file joint returns can each receive this benefit if they have been on UI.  Those with an adjusted joint income above $150,000 will not qualify for this tax benefit.

 

For Veterans and Members of the Military Interested in Higher Ed

The Act closes what is known as the 90/10 loophole.  It pertains to for-profit institutions who are obliged to show their viability as businesses by earning at least 10% of their revenue sources outside of student aid.  

Since GI benefits were not considered to be student aid, for-profits have been generating their 10% through aggressive recruiting of veterans and individuals currently serving in the military.  Closing this loophole will protect servicemembers and veterans from predatory admissions. It will be implemented starting January 1, 2023

From the Table: April 18th, 2019 Negotiation Session

On Thursday, TAUP sat down with the University’s administration for the first day of open negotiations for a new contract. In addition to the table team, over 20 people from TAUP’s Collective Bargaining Unit showed up to observe the discussion, a great success for our first time using Open Bargaining, in which all members of the CBU are invited to attend.  Our next confirmed sessions are  May 3rd, 9:00 a.m.-noon and May 6, 1-5 p.m. at Temple University Center City. Let TAUP know if you’d like to attend.

Early Settlement

We are pleased by the cooperative spirit that the administration has shown in our complex discussions setting forth the process for these negotiations.  As we described in previous bulletins, we have agreed to pursue an early settlement on wages, benefits, and job stability/security, with parallel processes on other important issues, including rules defining who in the library is in the Union; grievances; resources for adjuncts to meet 1:1 with students and for other needs; workload concerns; and diversity.

We put a wide range of proposals on the table yesterday, all informed by our union’s central value–that our members should be treated as the professionals as they are and fully and equitably rewarded for their accomplishments. These are the proposals we put out this week; more are forthcoming.

Proposal: Compensation

  • Significant Across-the-Board raises

  • Increases in merit

  • New salary minima, that should increase every year of the contract

  • Increases in overload pay

  • Increases in summer pay

  • A research fund for FT faculty who conduct independent studies

  • Pay for adjuncts conducting independent studies

  • Pay for required adjunct service

Temple Can Afford these Increases  

Since signing the full-time contract in 2014 and an adjunct agreement in 2017, the University has been doing very well financially, with large increases in unrestricted net assets, a very large net positive in revenues over expenses, and a decrease in debt load.  Even with challenges on the horizon, we believe that Temple will continue to do well, thanks in significant part to the excellent work done by our faculty, librarians, and academic professionals. However, the percentage of Temple’s budget devoted to instruction has remained flat.  Many of our members struggle to pay their bills, to afford health care, and to balance their work lives with their lives outside of work. This must change.

Proposal: Increased Tenure-Track Hiring; Adjunct and Full-Time Non-Tenure Track Job Stability

  • A mandated increase in tenure-track hiring.

  • Priority in hiring and long-term contracts for adjuncts with significant length of service and who receive satisfactory evaluations

We believe that the lack of job stability for all of our faculty must be addressed. There is a side-letter in the contract that already commits Temple to tenure-track hiring, and although Temple has continued to hire some tenure-track professors, the statistics for at least two decades are clear–in total numbers and as a percentage of the faculty as a whole, tenure-track faculty numbers have declined at an alarming rate.  The percentage of tenure-track faculty within the bargaining unit as a whole be increased by a total of 1% for every year of the contract.

Those who are not eligible for the protections of tenure–approximately 75% of our bargaining unit–deserve more job stability.  Building on the good work done by the labor-management committees emerging out of the adjunct contract, we have proposed an avenue for adjunct faculty to gain priority in hiring and longer-term appointments.  This increased stability is tied to an evaluation processes that goes beyond SFFs, and ensures that our members have been given the guidance they need to excel in their department.

At our next session on May 3rd, we will be putting forth a job security proposal for full-time non-tenure track faculty.

Proposal: Maternity and Parental Leave; Sick Leave

  • 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, replacing the inadequate benefit for librarians and increasing the 8 weeks full-time members get, eliminating the classification of pregnancy as a sickness.

  • A modification that clarifies the benefit that gives full-time faculty who are new parents a semester free from teaching, to be used within 12 months of the child’s arrival.

  • Librarians’ sick leave no longer subject to a University rule not appropriate to professionals.

Proposal: Parity in NTT Pensions

The idea of parity extends beyond minimum pay.  One of our biggest gains in the 2014 contract was that the pension match for NTTs was brought close to parity with tenure-track faculty.  It is time to close that gap for these colleagues, and we have made a proposal to do just that.

Proposal: Merit Pay:  More Transparency and Equity for Research NTTs

TAUP often gets complaints from members who believe that the merit system is opaque and unfair, and there are never enough merit units to adequately reward the amazing work our members do.  In addition to proposing a bump in merit, we have proposed that departments specify the range of units members can expect for specific accomplishments. Some departments already do this, many do not, which leads to an unsettling unpredictability for our members.

We have also been informed that NTTs whose salaries come entirely from grants are not guaranteed the merit they are due; at best, they can build this into the salary requested in their grant applications. We have proposed a solution to this.

Proposal: Childcare and Tuition Benefits at Other Schools

We reminded the administration that the joint Faculty Senate-TAUP Committees conveyed proposals on these two important issues last May and that the contract requires a formal administrative response that is long overdue.

How You Can Help: Rally on May and Upcoming Negotiation Sessions

Support TAUP in its fight to realize a vision of Temple where our members are properly rewarded and our teaching, research, and service are better-supported.

Join us for a rally at the Bell Tower on May 1st from 12-1

If you would like to support the Table Team by attending the May 3rd, 9-noon and/or May 6th, 1-5.p.m. bargaining sessions, RSVP to let TAUP know.

TAUP’s Table Team

Member

Constituency

School

TAUP role

Steve Newman

Tenured/Tenure Track

CLA

President

Jennie Shanker

Adjunct

Tyler

Vice President

Norma Corrales-Martin

Non-Tenure Track

CLA

Treasurer

Fred Rowland

Librarian

Exec. Committee

Chair Library Constituency Council

Don Wargo

Non-Tenure Track

CLA

Exec. Committee

Member-at-Large NTT Constituency Council

Paul LaFollette

Tenured/Tenure Track

CST

TAUP Member

Zoe Cohen

Adjunct

Tyler

Exec. Committee

Chair Adjunct Constituency Council

ALTERNATES

Jeff Solow

Tenured/Tenure Track

Boyer

Exec. Committee

Member-at-Large TT Constituency Council

Sam Allingham

Adjunct

CLA

Member-at-Large, Adjunct Constituency Council

Debbi Casey

Non-Tenure Track

Fox

TAUP Member

Nia Jackson

Academic Professional

CLA

TAUP Member

 

Keep up to date with TAUP by following our social media:

Twitter: @TAUP

Facebook: @TAUPAFT

Instagram: @taup4531

 

Negotiations Update 

TUESDAY NEGOTIATION SESSION CANCELLED: THURSDAY IS ON!

Unfortunately, a personal emergency has forced the sides to delay of the first negotiating session to Thursday, April 18th from 2:00-5:00 at Temple University Center City, room to be determined.  While there is still one outstanding issue for the administration to respond to in order to settle on the process, we anticipate that it will be resolved, so we are looking forward to sitting down with the administration on Thursday.

We are engaging in Open Bargaining for the first time in our union’s history. All members of the Bargaining Unit, regardless of TAUP membership, are invited to witness the negotiations and to engage with the table team during breaks.  Open Bargaining promotes transparency and accountability and shows solidarity among TAUP’s faculty, librarians and academic professionals which gives us the power to achieve common priorities.  To do this, we need your participation to ensure robust attendance at each session.

If you are interested in attending Thursday’s session, please contact the TAUP Office, taupaft@gmail.com so we can reach out to  you once the room is confirmed.  Please plan to arrive at 1:30 p.m. to learn about your role in Open Bargaining and the rules that govern the process.

 

RALLY: May 1, Noon-1pm at the Bell Tower

Before the semester ends, you’re also invited to make time to show your support for the work your TAUP colleagues have been doing, and meet with union leaders and activists to discuss the issues that we are fighting to make progress on.  Join us on Wednesday, May 1st at the Bell Tower from Noon – 1pm, to show Temple that whether or not you are able to show up for a bargaining session or not, you support TAUP’s work at the table.  If you can come plan to join us, please rsvp here .

 

Unemployment Compensation Workshops

TAUP members can collect Unemployment Compensation over the summer to cover basic costs during the break, or even for the upcoming year.

You may be eligible if:

  • You have been told that you will not be working in the fall, due to no fault of your own (ex: you didn’t quit, were not fired, etc.)
  • If you will be working fewer hours / teaching fewer courses in the fall than this term
  • If you’ve been told that you’ll be teaching in the fall, but there is a good chance that the course you’ve been offered will not run.

TAUP offers 90 minute workshops to help our members:

  • Understand Unemployment Compensation and how it works
  • Assess their eligibility
  • Understand key terms, concepts and questions that are used in the process
  • Fill out UC applications as accurately as possible

If you would like to attend a workshop, please fill out this form with your availability.

If you have any questions, contact Jennie Shanker at jshanker1@gmail.com

 

Childcare

Do you know an undergraduate student who needs help paying for child care?  The US Department of Education has provided four years of funding to our colleague Annemarie Hindman in the School of Ed that will pay full childcare costs for undergraduate students on Pell Grants.  Please announce this to your classes and share with any undergrad students who might need child care.  Advise students that this child care will be available for the next 3 years, but there are limited slots. Students need to contact Dr. Hindman as soon as possible.