That gives industrial labor some leverage that teachers don't have.

K12 just want their students to have what they need to learn, and love teaching. Lots of us do this because of love for our students. Community involvement in making noise at school boards would also be helpful.

It"s not so much the place your an adjunct that the adjunct is interested in but you have to have recent evaluations, productivity, etc

Colleges and universities have figured out that folks on in the "farm system" will work largely for that dream.

Multiple degress aren't free, and there is a huge opportunity cost spending years making next to nothing as a grad student.

That pursuit is done by people with dreams, and optimism, not the sort of people who understand walking away from steep odds.

I don't try to apply for FT in my discipline, but I know several others who do in theirs.

After being shut out after several rounds of hiring, despite having great resumes, evals, interviews, but being passed over for a candidate from outside the institution, many start to feel that the college is content with getting their labor for what they are already paying for it.

it's time to find something else.

Plus, after 12 years as an adjunct working in the humanities, where do you fit into in a career change?

Well when teachers don't demand there worth it's not going to get any better.

(formally an administrative role, but I teach as many classes as most of the full time faculty). I took a 60% pay cut to take this job and increased my actual working hours significantly (Currenly between 60 & 80 hours). My salary is based on 40 hours a week.

I "settle" because it is the only job I have ever had (in 4 decades+ of working) in which **literally** every day, often more than once a day, someone tells me they appreciate what I do.

There are some things money can't buy.

There is ZERO job security when working as an adjunct. You are awarded classes on a contract basis for a single semester...and that's it. If you make waves, or protest, or wear the wrong colored shirt, and someone decides that you aren't worth keeping around, the university will simply decline to offer you a new contract the following semester. Or, you might to everything right only to see a "more desirable" candidate enter the adjunct pool, and they may decline to offer you a new contract anyway.

As an adjunct, your employment comes to an end with each semester. If you want to be offered NEW employment the following semester, you must play the game by their rules.

That's why I quit teaching. I quintupled my income and slashed my stress in half when I left the classroom and went back to office work.

better off getting out.