George Doyle: A rebuttal to the Lima News re: 'Retiree Bonus Draining Coffers'

February 20, 2008

Dear Mr. Lederman:

My name is George V. Doyle, and I am the current President of the Lima Allen County Retired Teachers Association. I would like to comment on the article that appeared in the February 20, 2008 issue of The Lima News entitled "Retiree Bonus Draining Coffers."

First of all, let me say that we have not had the 13th check for at least 5 years and the purpose of those checks was to help those who retired at a time when salaries were very low so they could have some extra monies to help with their extra expenses that were not covered by their insurance. This 13th check was based upon a formula worked out which involved how long a teacher had been retired and how much their monthly retirement checks were.

Dr. Clemens referred to some trouble that we had with a previous STRS Board wasting our money. Most of the retirees were trusting and not aware of what was going on until we elected Dr. Dennis Leone who exposed all of the corruption. Since that time, all of those Board Members were prosecuted and punished to the letter of the law, and revisions of policies at STRS have been made to insure that this cannot happen again.

Now as to the comment on taxpayers paying for our insurance. A retiree paid into the fund from his/her salary all the time they were teaching and during that time the active teacher contribution kept rising, while administrative contributions stayed the same. Administration has not contributed one cent more than the 14 percent for the past 20 years, however, the active teacher portion went from 5% to 8% to 10%. The additional 5% increase would come from 2.5% from active teachers and 2.5% from administrations over a five year period. That still brings administration's contribution to only 16.5%.

I feel, as most teachers do, that we have earned our health benefits for the years that we have put in teaching for low wages under difficult conditions and sometimes even hazardous conditions without benefit of a bonus or perks.

Another change that has been made is that as of January 1, 2009, anyone on STRS retirement who works for a company that offers insurance (including rehired teachers and administrators) must opt out of the STRS insurance and go on the company insurance. This was done as a result of so many teachers and administrators retiring in June and going back at the same pay and same job in September, but staying on STRS insurance. It was hoped that this change would discourage school districts from rehiring once an employee retired. Although I feel that it is unfair for those of us who chose to work outside the field of education, I must commend STRS for trying to reduce the double-dipping that is occurring.

In all fairness, I would ask Heather Rutz to contact Laura Ecklar again and get the real facts before writing such a one-sided article. I am surprised that your editor did not ask her if she had all the facts before publishing this article. We retired teachers are really suffering because many of us are not of Medicare age yet and must rely upon this insurance to carry us through until we are of age. Another thing is that many of our older retirees (and we have many over the age of 100) cannot afford proper medical care and must make a decision between medication and food. This should not be in an age when we continue to send billions of dollars overseas and cannot seem to find any money to help our elderly in this country or to properly fund our education system because many states are taking away valuable dollars from public education and giving it to charter schools, who misuse the money and are not required to refund it or account for it either from a financial or academic standpoint.

Thank you for reading this rebuttal. I hope that you will publish this letter, as I am sure you will be hearing from retired teachers on this matter.

Sincerely,
George V. Doyle, President
Allen County Retired Teachers Association