Teacher: I've been on an emotional roller coaster 30 years and I am exhausted
Bob Osborn is a math teacher serving high school students from Clinton, Fayette and Highland counties in Ohio. He is in year 31 serving his community.
For more than a century, there has been a promise of retirement beginning at 30 years of public service to public education.
For teachers having reached 30 years of experience this past year, the history and promise is at best, up in the air. It’s a horrible thing to mess with a promise.
“We have an emergency! There is a shortage!” they said. “We must fix it now!”
Of course, that shortage was supposed to be a teacher shortage.
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We focused on teaching at year 10
When we were about a decade into what we thought was our 30-year teaching careers, the drama seemed to start in Columbus concerning the teacher retirement system. The headlines said there is a teacher shortage, but what did we care?
We were focused on teaching, many of us with spouses and very young children. We were sure that the folks in Columbus knew what they were doing — and the legislature and the governor enacted the 35-year incentive that gave those who were eligible to retire eighty eight percent of the final average salary rather than 77% at 35 years of teaching.
It was a 22% bonus to work just five more years.
Yes, that’s right, the legislation gave away an extra 11% to try to “fix” the “teacher shortage.” The average teacher was retiring at 66% back then. That 88% was very rich, as we discussed in the hallways of our school buildings between classes, but certainly they were not overspending on retiree benefits; we thought.
Many administrators took advantage of the incentive, but I don’t recall very many teachers staying to get it and the supposed shortage of teachers never seemed to develop. The legislature seemed to forget that it dedicated to additional benefits as providing the funds to compensate the retirement system for their action was apparently overlooked.
Warning bells rang at 20 years
By the time it was 20 years into what we thought was a 30-year career, the “alarms” were sounding.
“We’ve got to make changes to the teacher retirement system,” they said. And they began to implement austerity measures.
We soon learned that austerity meant some people got better benefits for the same work than others would receive.
“It’s to protect the retirement system,” they said.
About that time, there were riots in Greece because the government had not managed that retirement system and there were going to be deep cuts made. In Ohio, only teachers under about 22 years of experience were affected and we were raising our families, coaching sports teams. Busy about family life, not much fuss was made. We were sure that the folks in Columbus knew what they are doing to protect the retirement system.
It will be okay we thought, how long can it last?
And the legislature voted, the governor signed it and 30-years of service turned into just short of 40-years for the same retirement benefit.
Doubts and sheer exhaustion in after 30 years.
Now its thirty years into our service to our communities and some slight benefit improvements have been attempted for those already at 34 years of experience by the retirement board. Many of us are empty-nesters.
Now the discussion in the hallway starts with, “Did you make it to 9 p.m. before being completely exhausted?”
I had seen some very worn-out people just make it to the 30 years, still trying to do everything they could do at ten years and twenty years.
But now we wonder, can we keep it up until we get to the “new promise.” Oh sure, we could retire now in what is called early retirement at 30 years, but no one can afford to accept the 46% retirement offered for 30 years of service.
Yes, you read that right, the normal 66% was reduced to 46% for thirty years of service.
“It’s to protect the retirement system for everyone,” they said.
I am not sure of that anymore. It feels like we’re protecting the system that former legislatures and governors broke to fix emergencies that never actually materialized.
Was there a teacher shortage 20 years ago?
I never saw it.
Is there really a teacher shortage now?
It’s hard to tell completely, but I’m not seeing it in the districts that I have familiarity with. But if promises cannot be kept, there probably should be.
Did the incentive to 88% work for the classroom teachers?
Not really.
I watched many in administration and others who did not face a full classroom every day make it to 35 years, but very few teachers. Most teachers continued to retire at 30 years.
Did the austerity measures that took benefits from 66% all the way down to 46% work? For those who got the 88% incentive, it did.
For those of us paying for it, we’re about to find out over the next five years.
The questions have become for many of us who have dedicated thirty years to public education: will the next change to the retirement system hurt us again? Will the State Teachers Retirement System keep us on an emotional roller coaster for the next five years or could the legislature act and fix the problems created by previous governors and legislatures?
Bob Osborn is a math teacher serving high school students from Clinton, Fayette and Highland counties in Ohio. He is in year 31 serving his community.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How is State Teachers Retirement System failing Ohio teachers
