RH Jones: Retirees have carried districts long enough

From RH Jones, November 21, 2007
Subject: Retirees have carried districts long enough

To all:

My Ohio voting educators and friends, retirees have carried school districts long enough. It is time they recognized this fact. The following letter to the editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, 11/21/07, page A14, tells it all:

Retired teachers need assistance

In response to the Oct.3 letter from Akron school board President Linda Kersker (‘Districts can’t carry retirees’): House Bill 315, if passed by the legislature, would call for an additional 2.5 percent increase to be phased in over a five-year period. That amounts to 0.5 percent per year for both employer and employee.

It is a given that most school districts are struggling under financial restraints due to failures of levies and other expenditures, but 2.5 percent over a five-year period does not seem exorbitant. It would seem feasible and less costly that a school system would rather pay an additional 0.5 percent more quickly for a retired teacher that greater health-care expense and higher salaries for a current teacher who is reluctant to retire.

Currently, board of education employers contribute 14 percent, and employees contribute 10 percent of payroll to pay for retirement benefits. These percentages have been static for 20-plus years. Now let’s do a reality check. Tell me, what hasn’t changed in 20 years in cost of living and in the health-care bills. Many retirees are in their seventies and eighties.

Many who thought they were good to go have found out otherwise and have had to return to the work force. In 1986, 19.2 percent of people ages 65-69 were in the work force; in 2006, just 20 years later, the figures have jumped to 29 percent. In 1986, 10.3 percent of older workers (ages 70-74) were in the workforce; in 2006, 17 percent.

Managing a household budget and planning for retirement have become incredibly complicated. Most distressing is the number of would-be retirees who haven’t been able to save enough to support themselves for life, especially if they must pay a large sum for health insurance and require numerous prescriptions fo health problems.

Concentrating on living a healthy lifestyle can reduce the need for maximum health care.

The trend is evident: People are living longer and having to stay in the work force longer due to no or limited health-care coverage. With health-care and prescription costs increasing exponentially, as well as living costs, many retirees are struggling to live a life of quality.

Alice Marson
Barberton

Readers, pleased keep in mind that retired educators are elderly and past their prime. Although, sometimes we error in statistics, our hearts are in the right place: We want the best for the children. Children who have the best teachers attracted to Ohio by school boards, and business leaders, who recognized that offering a good retired educator health-care package is in the best interests of Ohio’s citizens.

Robert Hudson Jones, a retired Ohio STRS member