Jim N. Reed’s speech to STRS Board, February 16, 2007

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to begin with a positive personal observation. I would like to express my appreciation, publicly, to Ms. Hayden, Mr. Brooks and Mr. Johnson for taking issue positions at the recent retreat that indicates to this retiree that they are independent thinkers and will examine issues without preconceptions, and apply the basic yardstick of ORC 3307.15 in making decisions that will directly affect 430,000 active and retired educators. Careful and caring decision making can only enhance the Renaissance at STRS begun in 2003 and orchestrated by Dr. Leone and Mr. Lazares, who is hopefully on the mend as the public speaks today.

I do have a few concerns that I would like to bring to your attention. I wonder if you all are fully aware of the hardships that have befallen many in our profession who have irreversibly chosen to leave the classroom based on an understanding, a promise that their three decades or more of service would be rewarded with a secure, affordable retirement. But now they find themselves scrambling, financially, to stay afloat with healthcare premiums that continue to escalate beyond their means and, more frightening, beyond their control. The fortunate ones, those with enough of their health, have managed to find retirement employment. But many just can't go back to work.

Healthcare costs have risen at least 75% in the past half dozen years, while COLA’s have totaled about 15%. That is a formula for a retirement nightmare.

Our retirement system is a failure if the financially frail cannot take care of themselves and their families with what their careers offered, but did not deliver.

Too many teachers are being forced to remain in the classroom after their health has waned, their patience grown short and their energy exhausted in order to keep pace with the out-of-control rising cost of covering their families’ healthcare needs.

What a shame to witness a teacher’s dedicated career and hard-earned reputation be placed in jeopardy by “hanging on” for just a few more years or until Medicare can help bail them out. What has happened to the dignified, graceful retirement we so much anticipated?

Is it possible that those beginning teachers with families who started their careers qualifying for food stamps may qualify again for those same food stamps in their retirement? Are there former educators who do not make it to their retired teacher meetings because they cannot afford the cost of the luncheon? How many may have to resort to the ER for medical attention? One is too many.

This should explain why we are so sensitive to each and every dollar of our money that you decide to spend. Certainly, the ill-conceived expenditures approved by this and past Boards would not right all the wrongs wrought by 9/11 and the burst bubble on Wall Street, but if one entitlement expenditure could have paid one healthcare expense for a needy retired teacher, then it was misspent.

And how would you like to be an education college recruiter? What financial incentive can you offer to attract those who are the brightest and the best that we all want teaching our grandchildren and great-grandchildren? Many of us were attracted by that promise of retirement security, following a fulfilling career in teaching. Working our way through college, working summers and moonlighting to supplement teaching salaries was expected. That was the norm. (However, I'm not sure how many of us realized at that time that Social Security would handicap us as teachers by withholding two-thirds of our earned benefits in retirement. Furthermore, how many self-motivated career changers are going to be persuaded to bring their expertise into the classroom and lose most of their previously earned Social Security?)

Lastly, I am both offended and shamed when I speak with STRS-illiterate educators about what has happened in our retirement system in the past 15 years. Some have responded by excusing the misadventures and indiscretions of past and present Board members and Directors, based on the grounds that much of corporate America has also proven rotten. It angers me to think that my retirement system would be identified and/or compared with Enron and Worldcom.

As retired professional educators, we expect better; we deserve better; we demand better.

Thank you for your audience.