Telling the Truth in Kentucky Teaching Pension Stories
I’ve been reading many articles and blogs several of my teaching friends in Kentucky are sharing about governor Bevins' proposal to fix the Kentucky pension problem. Here is one of them, though I have read several. Many of the statements are simply untrue and serve as scare tactics. Thus I feel I must rebut them.
In one story, I saw one person quoted as saying 30,000 teachers could exit the system and that schools would be understaffed with ratios of 60 students to 1 teacher possible. That is simply not true.
First off, I know many qualified people—with education degrees AND teaching certificates—who live in Kentucky who simply cannot get hired. Some of that is due to a glutton of people who obtained teaching degrees only to find out there were more qualified people than positions available. I had a friend apply for a teaching position only to be told that he/she was one of close to 30 people who had applied for one open teaching position at the school. Some of it is due to politics. I’ve known plenty of qualified people who applied for a teaching position only to find another teacher's son or daughter got hired or the friend of the principle needed a job. I even have one friend who repeatedly applied only to be told the school needed coaches and since he/she was not a coach, they could not get hired.
Furthermore, I know many excellent and qualified teachers who have had to go outside of Kentucky to get a teaching job because jobs were not available in Kentucky. They still live in Kentucky but commute to Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and Tennessee to teach in the classroom. They are good, passionate teachers who only work out of state for an opportunity to be in a classroom and went to states where they could find that opportunity. They would rather work in Kentucky and be closer to home.
So all that is to say there will be no teacher shortage. If teachers have a mass exit, like some have said, there are plenty of qualified people—not to mention more college graduates—willing to jump in and take their place.
Secondly as much as many teachers are upset about these proposed changes, I sincerely doubt there will be the mass exodus they are predicting. I love teachers. My wife is a teacher (And has some money in the Kentucky teachers' pension program). So I speak this with love and appreciation. Being a teacher is hard, especially as we increasingly ask them to teach, be a surrogate parent, a counselor, and at times, a bouncer. They do not get paid nearly enough for what they do.
However, being a teacher is not a bad gig compared to a lot of other jobs. While I think they should be paid more, they certainly are not making minimum wage. With mandatory salary increases for experience and degrees, many experienced teachers make $40,000-50,000 a year plus EXCELLENT benefits. (The best insurance we ever had was when my wife worked in public schools in Kentucky). I’m not sure teachers are going to or are able to give up that kind of salary and benefit package. I know I couldn't.
Furthermore, teachers aren’t required to be at their place of business on weekends or holidays. They get two weeks off during Christmas and at least two months off during the summer. There are no other jobs with that equivalent time off. As a family with young kids, I can tell you we cherish our summers when my wife is off with the kids. We don’t require child care (or the costs of it) for two months. We have more freedom of schedule. We can schedule vacation anytime in that two month span. Again, you will struggle to find a work schedule with that kind of freedom.
Third, if they leave, where are the teachers going to go? Most surrounding states face much of the same competition for teaching jobs. They also require different requirements for a teaching certificate. My wife had to retake certification tests to qualify for a Tennessee license. In Illinois, when we moved here, it required $1,000 in test fees and administrative costs to obtain an Illinois license. That was just to be eligible for a job. It did not guarantee one. When we arrived, we met with several teachers and administrators who all told us the same thing: it would be tough to find a teaching job because of the state shortfall in funds. Due to budget constraints, many schools were not hiring or hiring just one or two positions with many applicants applying. Some applicants were the same teachers let go by those same schools due to lack of funds.
Finally, the notion that teaching degrees and experience will equate to higher paying jobs outside of education is not accurate either. I have many friends and acquaintances with teaching degrees--even master's degrees--employed in jobs that require no degree at all. They make no more then their colleagues. By the way, that's not exclusive to teaching. I know many people who work jobs that had nothing to do with their college degrees. I know many former pastors, with Bible College and seminary degrees, who now work outside of ministry in jobs that required no schooling at all.
That’s not say teaching is easy. It’s not to say anyone can do it. We need good, qualified teachers in our schools. They need to be compensated well. But the notion that teachers will suddenly leave because the pension plan has changed is simply not an accurate statement. Many love their jobs and students too much to do it. Some simply will not find an equivalent job outside of the classroom.
Despite the rhetoric, the truth is a solution needs to be found. Like any good solution, neither side is going to be completely happy with it. This issue, in Kentucky, has been brewing for close to a decade. Legislators should never have dipped into the pension plan. It's a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, except now Peter wants his money too. A solution needs to be found. It's best if both sides stopped trying to scare everyone so they can sit down and work something out. You all are too smart, and too invested, to do otherwise.
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