Local Teachers Talk Pension Crisis

The latest official reports put Kentucky at least $40 billion short of what it needs to pay off pension and healthcare obligations for retirees over the next 30 years. By now, all of us know the complete failure of past lawmakers and the incompetence of present lawmakers when it comes to this issue. Many lawmakers continue to push for cuts to previously-promised benefits that teachers had signed up for and agreed to. Deeming this a crisis sometimes feels like an understatement. 

As I write blogs, I always think back to the words of encouragement about my writing skills from Mrs. Bush and current AIS principal, Mr. Robin Kelsch. The roles teachers play in our lives are invaluable. The fact that teachers are severely underpaid is a travesty and the pension crisis is an issue that gives each of us a chance to back the heroes of our childhoods and adolescent years. Teachers don’t become teachers for money, or for praise, or for free summers (jealous about that part). Being an educator is a calling. I decided to write this blog to bring the idea to the forefront that teachers are the true public servants. The people who pose as public servants (legislators) don’t have to worry about having their benefits being cut. An overwhelming number of legislators in this country don’t really serve the public either. They serve their campaign donors, they serve only like minded individuals, they serve only lobbyists who cut the fattest checks. I asked two of my educator friends, Augusta residents, to give a brief statement about the pension crisis. And, well, these two ladies did not disappoint. This first testimony is from Lila Brindley. Ms. Brindley is a former math and science teacher at AIS and current high school biology teacher at Bracken County. Ms. Brindley has been very vocal about opposing cuts to teachers’ benefits and also attended the widely covered protest in Frankfort recently. “I am a veteran Middle School and High School teacher who has taught in four districts across our state. As a young girl I played teacher with my friends, but I didn’t really think that was my calling. In my 20s, I took a spiritual gifts survey at church and it said I should be a teacher. It wasn’t until several years later that, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, I entered a Master’s Program for Education. Starting a little later in life, I sacrificed a higher paying job to retire earlier and have a good pension and healthcare. Now all of that is in danger of changing. Currently teachers can retire at 27 years of service or age 55. If changes are made, anyone with less than 20 years of service, which is the category I reside in, can retire at 35 years of service or age 60. Annual cost of living will be cut by half for 12 years. So when I retire, the amount I get on day one will be the almost same amount I get when I die, and we know with inflation that won’t pay the bills or feed an individual. Teachers used to be able to cash in their unused sick days for their retirement.  But this is NOT the reason teachers didn’t use all of their sick days. If I am not in my classroom, my students do NOT get the instruction from a substitute teacher that they would have gotten from me.  This is the reason that teachers didn’t use all of their sick days; we don’t horde them. We try to give our students the best education possible. And for that, we are being penalized.  Being a single mother, I feel trapped in this system or I would leave today and enter a new career at age 43.” My good friend Alison Bach is the fourth grade teacher at Augusta Independent. Someone that I have a great admiration for. Bach’s dedication to our school district is something to marvel at. Her hours spent at the school would help you understand why she decided to live close to the school building. “No one decides to go into the teaching profession to be underappreciated for the countless extra hours we work, to be judged on our teaching abilities by test scores, or to cry on a regular basis for any number of reasons. No, we teach because we care about making a difference in a child's life and hope to inspire them to work hard to accomplish goals and believe in themselves. I love my job, and I put up with the not so glamorous "perks" that come with it because teachers were promised that after we devoted 27 mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting years to the profession, a moderately healthy retirement was to follow. Now, we're being told the pension system we have paid our share into for years is in jeopardy of being drastically changed in our state government's "war on public education". It's been suggested that new teachers be forced to enroll in a 401k-type of retirement, which is subjected to the uncertainty of the stock market, while retired teachers are at risk of losing healthcare funding. If retired teachers have to funnel so much of their monthly retirement funds into affording healthcare, what money will be left over to be put back into the local economy? Then, there are the teachers in between, those that have spent too much time in the profession (less than 10 years to go) to leave now and feel "stuck" at a job which soon might fail them, and those teachers with less than 10 years in who are still bursting with fresh ideas and a drive to change lives, but might be thinking it's not too late to seek a different career with better retirement benefits where they can clock out at 4:00, leave work at work, and not lose out on spending time with their growing families by grading papers all evening. I don't have the all the answers to solve the pension problem (like we say in the school system, "people who make more money than I do make those decisions," which is so true in this situation, but state lawmakers salaries and their pensions are another post entirely), but funding for the pension system must be found first. If the state government makes some of the proposed changes to the teacher pension system, we will lose or fail to recruit excellent and highly qualified teachers. They will find easier jobs with better benefits. I truly love my job, and I hope by the time I'm ready to retire, it shows me the same love that I've given to the profession for so many years.” If there’s anyone in this entire country, in any profession, that deserves the benefits they were promised, it’s teachers.