Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Older Teachers Would Get Help to Retire Early Under Senate Measure

Andrew Garber
Older Teachers Would Get Help To Retire Early Under Senate Measure
The Seattle Times
Tuesday February 22, 2011

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014303070_teachers23m.html

Intended audience: Educators and pre-service teachers

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown proposed Senate Bill 5846 in an effort to entice older teachers (or at least those under age 65) to retire, which will pave the way for younger, newer teachers to enter the field. The bill states that newly retired teachers will earn an extra $250 monthly to help cover expenses, such as medical insurance, to help bridge the gap until teachers are able to collect Medicare and Social Security benefits. The bill’s proposal offers this incentive for a three year period. The bill would help the budget by allowing the highest paid educators (about 5,000 of them would currently qualify) to exit the system and be replaced with less expensive rookie teachers. If all 5,000 older aged educators were to retire, the estimated expense would be 48 million over the three year period. Supposedly the motivation is not just financial, but helps the teachers who may have burnout, medical or other health issues that create the need for retirement, but who cannot afford to do so until they turn 65. This bill would also help to accommodate those specific needs as well as freeing up more space in the school system for newer teachers.

I found this really interesting because we all, as incoming teachers, are faced with a difficult prospect of being hired right away. We all understand that we may have to sub. Or work other jobs until we are able to squeeze in somewhere. The culprits are the budget, and the high number of teachers who are holding out on retirement because of the poor economy. We all hope that older teachers will retire, but don’t blame them for not until the economy climbs. It does seem, however, that the incentive of a measly $250 a month does not in any way seem practical to cover any significant “living expenses”. I think as pre-service teachers and current students, we will be waiting a while until teachers finally feel comfortable retiring, and should not hold our breath for such a bill to pass.

1 comment:

  1. I think this is a good thing and in the long run, will save money because I figure the cost of the older teachers is much more than the new hire bunch. The downside to this is to have all that experience walking out the door.
    It would be nice to have a cadre of mentor teachers out there to draw ideas from.

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