Something interesting is happening as school districts start to consider just what to do when a sizable number of their schoolteachers retire.
That’s going to be happening over the next few years as thousands of schoolteachers reach retirement age; not too old to teach, not seeing their skills at teaching our children the important things they need to learn evaporate, but just retiring because it pencils out as the financially intelligent thing to do.
Somewhere in the back of our minds we figure if it makes more economic sense for teachers to retire than to continue teaching under current pension laws, then are those teachers smart enough to do the right thing? Would you want your kids taught by people who aren’t smart enough to look after themselves? Probably not.
It’s a complicated business this teacher retirement. About 20 years ago, when Kansas was overrun by fresh-faced graduates who had majored in education, the concept was simple. Make it possible for teachers to retire under the “rule of 85” which means when their age and length of service total 85, they can retire and get the full Kansas Public Employee Retirement System pension they’ve earned. As long as there are plenty of new teachers, those retirees — who are at the top of their pay range — retire, and districts just hire newly minted teachers at lower salaries. That works out well — or did.
Except now, there are thousands of those near-retirement schoolteachers and not many young new teachers ready to take their jobs. And, remember, if a teacher started teaching just after college graduation, say, at 23 years old, taught for 31 years, he/she would be eligible for his/her pension. That makes that teacher 54 years old and eligible for retirement checks from the state’s pension system.
There’s, of course, still plenty of tread left on that tire for a 54-year-old, but current KPERS rules encourage retirement then, and at the same time make it devilishly hard to keep teaching after retirement, when the full pension would add to income from continuing to teach. The teaching-after-retirement system in Kansas limits those returning to work in their same school district (after taking a mandatory 30 days off) to making just $20,000 a year without their pension being reduced.
That made sense years ago, but doesn’t now, when there is a severe shortage of young, cheap teachers to be hired by districts to teach Kansas kids.
