IN RESPONSE TO POST GAZETTE ARTICLE ON TEACHER EXODUS
Published in the South Section of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
July 27, 2006
The exodus of teachers is not difficult to understand. ("Teacher exodus," South July 6.) A generous retirement package is the inducement.
In the final year of previous Gov. Tom Ridge's administration, a deal was made to raise the retirement benefits of the legislators by 50 percent. In order to obtain passage of the legislation, a deal also was made to give the teachers a 25 percent increase.
Teachers now can retire and receive 75 percent of the average of their final 3 years' salary , provided they are at age 55 and have served for 30 years. This teacher, earning $75,000, approximately $400 per workday, is eligible for an annual pension of $56,250. The school districts put another carrot on the end of the stick, medical coverage until the recipient is covered by Medicare. This coverage, at a nominal cost the retiree, is comprehensive: health, dental, eye care, and prescription drugs.
The old idiom, "there is no free lunch," is born out by the fact that the taxpayers contribution to the Public School Retirement System (PSERS) for the coming year will increase by 38% form 4.69 percent to 6.46 percent of total salary. The districts' contribution is from the first to the last payroll dollar.
A $75,000 salary requires a funding by the district in the amount of $4,845. The districts emphasize that 50% of this funding is reimbursed by Harrisburg. Harrisburg gets the 50 percent from the same pocketbook, the taxpayers.
From a $9.5 billion surplus in 2000, the school pension fund has plunged into $9.3 billion in unfunded liability. Taxpayers will have to start making up the difference by 2012, when employer contributions are expected to more than triple, from 6.46 percent to 22.46 percent.
By 2012, an extra $1 billion from the state plus $1billion from the school districts will be needed to fund the program. This means higher property taxes. The Legislature deluded itself into believing it could implement these pension enhancements with little or no impact on school costs.
The previous state auditor general, Bob Casey, has refused to order an open or public audit of the PSERS. Why?
Who in the private sector has benefits even close to those of our public sector employees? Most major corporations have suspended defined pension benefit plans in favor of defined contribution plans such as 401(k)s or IRAs.
Scores of major corporations have turned their pension programs over to the government, and pensioners will receive a fraction of what they had anticipated upon retirement. Public employees, such as teachers and legislators, have become accustomed to bellying up to the public trough, but they must face reality: the gravy train of taxpayer dollars is running out. The taxpayer is fast growing tired of providing overly generous salary and benefits programs.
Pennsylvania ranks among the top on teachers salaries, near the bottom in student achievement and first in the number of annual teacher strikes.
W. C. Schmeltzer
Mount Lebanon