Some California college professors are earning more than the state’s highest-paid education officials by teaching dozens of online courses simultaneously, often using prerecorded lectures, according to a CalMatters investigation.
The nonprofit news organization identified more than 70 instructors who taught at five or more California community college districts, Cal State campuses or UC campuses in 2024. Many primarily taught online courses that students could complete on flexible schedules.
California has no rules limiting the number of districts where an instructor may work, nor does it maintain a system to track professors’ total workloads.
Colleges cannot see an instructor’s complete course schedule because the state’s 73 community college districts operate independently. One instructor identified in the CalMatters analysis was listed as teaching at least 69 course sections across nine districts in 2024.
CalMatters identified Thien-Huong Ninh Villarreal as the highest-paid instructor in its review. She teaches sociology, ethnic studies and business, holds full-time positions at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton and Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, and works part-time at seven other community colleges and Cal State Sacramento.
This fall, Villarreal is teaching roughly 30 classes with more than 1,100 students, according to CalMatters. She earned nearly $800,000 in 2024—more than any community college administrator in California, including the system chancellor.
Ninh Villarreal did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Astronomy instructor Andrew Vanden Heuvel teaches about 50 online classes and labs from an office above his garage in a small Michigan town along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
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He said he has taught as many as 1,000 students in one semester at colleges in Santa Monica, Salinas, San Jose and Visalia, as well as institutions in New Mexico, Michigan, Washington and Florida.
Vanden Heuvel told CalMatters that he earned $758,485 in total income in 2024. California schools accounted for about $320,000 of that amount, the outlet reported.
Vanden Heuvel defended his approach, telling CalMatters that his students receive an excellent education and that he is the only astronomy professor available at some rural colleges. He shares much of his instructional material on YouTube, where his videos have received nearly 5 million views.
“Now, did I push it further than some people think is morally conscionable? I don’t think so,” he told the outlet.
Vanden Heuvel declined to comment to The California Post.
Full-time professors are also taking on extensive outside workloads. CalMatters reported that Bobby Seals, a full-time ethnic studies professor at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, teaches 14 additional courses across four other districts, reaching about 930 students this semester.
Other instructors named in the report include Faramarz Mortezaie, a computer science department chair at Mission College in Santa Clara; Nicholas Nardi, a psychology professor at Santa Ana College; Timothy Durfield, a business professor at Citrus College; and Walter Meyer, an art history professor at Santa Monica College.
According to CalMatters, each teaches at least 10 additional classes at other campuses. None responded to the outlet’s requests for comment.
