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The Homeless Professor Who Lives in Her Car
National Education Association ^ | November 1, 2017 | Mary Ellen Flannery

Posted on 11/03/2017 4:41:31 PM PDT by mdittmar

On a recent weeknight, writing instructor Ellen Tara James-Penny sits with a student in a parking lot near San José State University for more than an hour, explaining the perils of “hasty generalizations” and other pitfalls in college-level writing. Then, James-Penny and her husband get into their aging Volvo sedan and drive a few blocks to a local church, where she sleeps in their car with one dog and he sleeps in a tent a few feet away with the other.

Despite the four college courses she teaches, and the master’s degree she earned a few years ago, James-Penny is homeless. She simply does not earn enough money as an adjunct professor—that is a college educator who lacks tenure or job security, and typically is hired on a per-class basis—to afford the high cost of rents in Silicon Valley. Last year, James-Penny made $28,700, according to California’s state worker salary database. This year, she expects to make a little more, thanks to raises negotiated by her union, the California Faculty Association.

(Excerpt) Read more at neatoday.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: collegeprofessor; ellentarajamespenny; fakenews; governormoonbeam; govmoonbeam; jamespenny; nea; rentistoodamnhigh; sanjose; sanjosestate; siliconvalley; therentistoodamnhigh
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To: Tax-chick

Beat me to it.

A Great Looking Dog (on the right...)


41 posted on 11/03/2017 5:35:22 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: Paladin2
oops, left....

The "prof" looks fine too. Just not a deep thinker.

42 posted on 11/03/2017 5:36:50 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: Tax-chick

See #42.


43 posted on 11/03/2017 5:37:31 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: PGR88

That’s a hasty generalization.


44 posted on 11/03/2017 5:38:10 PM PDT by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors (at the time of election!)
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To: mdittmar

Would you let a beautiful dog like that live in a car?


45 posted on 11/03/2017 5:39:03 PM PDT by Tax-chick (The bigger the problem, the less likely a solution can be politically feasible.)
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To: Paladin2

Tara’s had too much sun.


46 posted on 11/03/2017 5:39:26 PM PDT by Tax-chick (The bigger the problem, the less likely a solution can be politically feasible.)
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To: mdittmar
No mention of how much the professor's husband earns?


47 posted on 11/03/2017 5:39:52 PM PDT by Sooth2222 ("Gun buybacks are one of the most ineffectual public policies that have ever been invented")
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To: mdittmar

There is a two-year waiting list to park an RV at a trailer park in Silicon Valley.


48 posted on 11/03/2017 5:40:21 PM PDT by Slyfox (Are you tired of winning yet?)
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To: mdittmar

Should have gotten a Master in Writing in Spanish not English ... much more demand in Ca.


49 posted on 11/03/2017 5:44:43 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Start using cash and checks or the elite class and bankers will make "cashless" the norm.)
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To: Tax-chick

Not my dog.


50 posted on 11/03/2017 5:45:21 PM PDT by mdittmar
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To: Menehune56

Whoa, before I drown in sympathy tears, it should be noted that the federal government completely overhauled the student loan repayment system in 2010.

Everyone gets to go on income contingent payment plans, even if that means $5 per month on $300,000 debt.

It only makes sense if you can get the politics of it. The default rates were horrific, it reverberated. Then, presto! Loans are being taken out of default status left and right. Credit reports are clearing up, you can see where this is going.

Someone who is low income and homeless absolutely should be able to get not only income based repayment, but a hardship deferment.

How she could not know this is a mystery.


51 posted on 11/03/2017 5:48:38 PM PDT by jazminerose (Adorable Deplorable)
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To: mdittmar

Owe no man anything but to love one another...


52 posted on 11/03/2017 5:57:54 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: Paladin2

Well, that rules out a name-change to Ellen Tara James-Pretty-Penny.

Unless the brown-eyed one is Ellen.


53 posted on 11/03/2017 6:04:48 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Tax-chick

That’s a drawback of White Supremacy...

And age; who am I to complain about the degradation of age?


54 posted on 11/03/2017 6:09:18 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: Sooth2222

I’ve seen a few Class 8 straight truck RVs. They seem to be pretty cool.


55 posted on 11/03/2017 6:10:39 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: mdittmar
She simply does not earn enough money as an adjunct professor—that is a college educator who lacks tenure or job security, and typically is hired on a per-class basis—to afford the high cost of rents in Silicon Valley.

News flash for Ms and Mr. James-Penny: There is much more to this country than Silicon Valley.

Move.

56 posted on 11/03/2017 6:13:31 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: fr_freak

I know lots of people that live on boats. Know one gal who lives in a travel trailer. Don’t know anyone that lives in their car or sleeps in a tent. Just shaking my head.


57 posted on 11/03/2017 6:13:38 PM PDT by sheana
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear
The only adjunct "professors" I knew were professors at one university who served as adjucts at another. The Air Force Institute of Technology is near where I went to college and there was a lot of crossover. No PhD means they were just instructors.

The only person I know of who got a professorship with just a masters degree was Neil Armstrong in aeronautical engineering and he walked on the freaking moon.

58 posted on 11/03/2017 6:46:49 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (The Whig Party died when it fled the great fight of its century. Ditto for the Republicans now.)
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To: mdittmar

This story appeared on FR some time ago and in spite of numerous suggestions, she appears not to have accomplished much since. There are many ways to live on $29K a year in the bay area - a second job is one, roomies are another. The main problem is she is using dogs as an excuse not to move on. Finding an inexpensive place for one person to live is pretty easy; a couple is harder; with 2 dogs is near impossible because they require a yard, where they can bark and run around.

there are more than a few places like these for those looking to live in the city on the cheap:
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/roo/d/private-master-bedroom-in/6359867261.html
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sub/d/sale-bunk-bed-in-shared-room/6364612518.html


59 posted on 11/03/2017 6:49:36 PM PDT by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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To: Tax-chick

In San Francisco there are more people that have dogs than have children. This marginal life for the Bay area is trite, there are tens of thousands that live in trailers, AirBNB rooms that are too crappy to rent as an apartment and all sorts of homeless quasi abandoned buildings.

You can’t rent an apartment for less than the moon. You have to have good credit or you can’t rent either. No apartments can meet zoning to get built. It is a sad sack area in many ways. If you have a home anywhere, multiply its value by 300% and that is what it costs in the bay area if you can afford utilities that are double or worse.


60 posted on 11/03/2017 6:58:09 PM PDT by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
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