You would think that the State of Texas, and the over one thousand school districts that make up its public education system would be looking for the best teachers it could find these days.
You would think.
These days, the number of qualified teachers coming out of colleges and universities statewide is on the decline. Competition from the private sector, which on the whole pays better than a public school teacher brings home, is largely to blame. And while the starting salary for teachers is starting to become competitive with some areas of the private sector, that salary scale does not keep pace with inflation or any other thing. Year to year salary bumps are largely arbitrary and not based on anything other than time served. So after 5 years, just at about the time novice teachers becomes adept in their jobs, there is a tremendous pressure on them to leave the profession for better paying jobs. Within education (administration or counseling) or without.
One way to fill the ever-widening gap between teacher supply and demand would be to tap one very valuable Texas resource: the retired teacher.
Retired teachers are in overabundance in Texas. Many found themselves prematurely retired due to changes in federal laws which practically forced them to leave teaching or lose thousands of dollars in retirement benefits. Many of these teachers have slowly made their way back to the teaching profession in private schools, but this has not helped to mitigate the teacher shortages in public schools.
Why not? Why do retired teachers avoid work in public education? Answer: it’s not them, it is the state. An agency of the State of Texas purposely engineers it so that retired teachers are not welcome in Texas school districts.
Specifically it is the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. The system that pays retirement benefits to all retired teachers of Texas. If a public school district wants to hire a retired teacher, it seems, the district must pay to the Teacher Retirement System a surcharge of 12.4% of that teacher’s salary.
And because a teacher’s salary is based on years of teaching experience, the surcharge that results from their being hired is no small matter.
So rather than hiring back experienced veteran teachers in an environment that is becoming infamous for its personnel shortages, districts instead are encouraged to hire inexperienced teachers with no state certifications and very little, if any, classroom experience.
And you have the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to thank for that.
Point to ponder: I wonder when some Texas legislator/alumnus of the Texas education system will use this in a political spin on the value of a school voucher system, where private schools hire veteran teachers because the dastardly, pinch-penny cheap public schools won’t?
You would think.
These days, the number of qualified teachers coming out of colleges and universities statewide is on the decline. Competition from the private sector, which on the whole pays better than a public school teacher brings home, is largely to blame. And while the starting salary for teachers is starting to become competitive with some areas of the private sector, that salary scale does not keep pace with inflation or any other thing. Year to year salary bumps are largely arbitrary and not based on anything other than time served. So after 5 years, just at about the time novice teachers becomes adept in their jobs, there is a tremendous pressure on them to leave the profession for better paying jobs. Within education (administration or counseling) or without.
One way to fill the ever-widening gap between teacher supply and demand would be to tap one very valuable Texas resource: the retired teacher.
Retired teachers are in overabundance in Texas. Many found themselves prematurely retired due to changes in federal laws which practically forced them to leave teaching or lose thousands of dollars in retirement benefits. Many of these teachers have slowly made their way back to the teaching profession in private schools, but this has not helped to mitigate the teacher shortages in public schools.
Why not? Why do retired teachers avoid work in public education? Answer: it’s not them, it is the state. An agency of the State of Texas purposely engineers it so that retired teachers are not welcome in Texas school districts.
Specifically it is the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. The system that pays retirement benefits to all retired teachers of Texas. If a public school district wants to hire a retired teacher, it seems, the district must pay to the Teacher Retirement System a surcharge of 12.4% of that teacher’s salary.
And because a teacher’s salary is based on years of teaching experience, the surcharge that results from their being hired is no small matter.
So rather than hiring back experienced veteran teachers in an environment that is becoming infamous for its personnel shortages, districts instead are encouraged to hire inexperienced teachers with no state certifications and very little, if any, classroom experience.
And you have the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to thank for that.
Point to ponder: I wonder when some Texas legislator/alumnus of the Texas education system will use this in a political spin on the value of a school voucher system, where private schools hire veteran teachers because the dastardly, pinch-penny cheap public schools won’t?
