School superintendents ask public to advocate for teacher pension systems
The superintendents also want the public to call legislators and urge them not to making sweeping changes to the pension plans.
The teacher and public employee pension systems are expected to be altered in an upcoming special legislative session to address what lawmakers have described as major shortfalls in the systems. The most glaring shortfall is in the Kentucky Retirement Systems fund for state workers in non-hazardous jobs, which has only
The retirement fund for teachers has 54 percent of the funds it needs to meet its obligations. Meanwhile, the County Employee Retirement System, which covers school employees other than teachers, has 59 percent of the funds it needs. Similar shortfalls exist in the pension system for hazardous duty state workers and for the
An independent consultant proposed in August that newly-hired teachers be placed into 401(k) retirement plans instead of the defined benefit pension plans offered now. The recommendation also included making teachers eligible for
A pension plan has not yet been released, but State Sen.
Daviess County Public School Superintendent
Teachers pay 13 percent of their salaries into the pension system, Robbins said, but the state has underfunded the system by
"To be clear, that problem has spanned multiple years, multiple administrations and both political parties," Robbins said at the joint conference at
"We've already had one come in and say she wasn't going to wait, and turned in her (retirement) papers for
Hiring will be more of a problem if new teachers are placed on 401(k) plans, Lewis said.
"The starting pay is not very good for a new teacher," he said. "The salaries are not comparable to what they could get in the business world."
"It's unfortunate this conversation is about taking away benefits from teachers," Estes said.
Putting teachers into the
The superintendents had a list of recommendations, including detaching the County Employee Retirement System from the Kentucky Employee Retirement System, because the CERS is better funded.
"CERS is a pension plan for non-certified school employees," McLean Public School Superintendent
The superintendents said state lawmakers should take on tax reform to raise revenue. The superintendents also advocated what they called a "shared responsibility approach," that would enable school officials to work with legislators on pension changes.
"I can't place before you a detailed plan" of how "shared responsibility" would work, Robbins said, but "It has been done before."
"That's part of our pledge, to work on some of those things," Brake said.
The state needs to continue investing in education, Brake said.
"It's well-documented that economic growth is spurred by investment in education," Brake said. "States with the highest investments have the highest growth.
"There is a net positive effect on local economies as a result of investment in education," Brake said. "... Education is never a cost, it's an investment."
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