The former New York Yankee catcher used to say “it ain’t over till it’s over.” That sounds simplistic, but is really pretty profound. Especially when you add that “it is almost never really, truly and completely over.“ Once you understand that, making sense of most things is much easier. For example, the teacher retirement issue, which the legislature fought over for months.
This all started because the state budget has a two billion dollar deficit and legally has to be balanced by September 30th. Nobody is willing to even talk about raising taxes, so the hole has to be filled entirely by budget cuts.
Governor Jennifer Granholm decided to try to get more teachers to retire this year. That would allow the schools to replace them with new teachers who would be paid a lot less.
The idea was to offer teachers over a certain age and who had put in a certain number of years a “sweetener,“ in the form of a slightly higher pension. And since every carrot has to have a stick, teachers who are eligible to retire and don’t would be punished by having to pay into a retirement fund.
When this was first proposed, back in February, the governor said the legislature needed to get this done by April 1st . That would give teachers time to decide what they wanted to do, and the school districts time to look for their replacements.
But the legislators fought bitterly over the bill. As usual, the Democrats who control the house couldn’t agree with the Republicans, who control the senate. Two days ago, it looked like there would be no bill at all. Then, in the wee hours of this morning, there was a breakthrough. The Senate passed a retirement bill, and after a long struggle, the House followed
As I understand it, Republicans agreed to give those retiring now a little more money. Democrats agreed to some other concessions, including language that prevents districts from bringing retirees back to work on contract.
They wouldn't be allowed to do that even if it saved the schools money, and the retiree was the best person for the job.
The teachers’ union hates this agreement, and fought hard to get the house to reject it. But in the end, the lawmakers passed it and voted to put it into effect immediately. Speaker of the House Andy Dillon and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop said this is a great victory. They think it could save as much as three billion over the next decade, though nobody really knows.
Nobody knows how many teachers will take the offer. What this won’t do, however, is improve the quality of education. Sure, there are some older teachers who are burned out. But many good teachers just keep getting better. Now, districts will be replacing seasoned, award-winning pros with new teachers just out of college.
This may save money, and will be great for some newly minted teachers. But it may not be the best thing for our kids, who need the best training possible to cope with the economy of the future.
Strangely, nobody in Lansing seems very concerned about that.
If anyone thinks that the retiring teachers are going to be replaced, they're mistaken.
In a district I know, ten teachers are eligible for retirement and no retiring teachers will be replaced.
If all ten take early retirement, then only two more teachers are likely to be pink slipped.
Otherwise, fewer retirements = more layoffs.
Posted by: Bigjolly1 | May 16, 2010 at 08:08 AM