Nearly 2,000 school employees retire tomorrow to avoid benefit loss
Interesting story about 1,700 school employees retiring tomorrow to take advantage of a base pay boost that is about to disappear.
In a typical year, fewer than 300 of the state’s educators retire Dec. 1, while the school year is in full swing.
But this year, 1,707 educators across the state have opted to retire now. This includes 123 employees — including 63 teachers, four counselors, seven paraprofessionals, two assistant principals and two principals — in Gwinnett County, the state’s largest school district.
They’re heading out the door just in time to claim a one-time 3 percent increase in their base for yearly pension benefits that’s been given to new retirees for more than 20 years and is being discontinued in January.
The bump in benefits — capped at 3 percent of $37,500, or an extra $1,125 — was established after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that Georgia could not exempt the pensions of state employees from state income tax while taxing the pensions of federal government workers.
In recent years, Georgia also has ratcheted up a state income tax exclusion for all retirees — government and nongovernment — so that $35,000 is now exempt for retirees between ages 62 and 65, $65,000 for those 65 and older, said Jeff Ezell, executive director of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia.
The TRS board decided months ago that the 3 percent adjustment was no longer necessary, Ezell said.
Allowing it to continue would mean state retirees would be “getting a double benefit,” he said.
The state is moving in a similar direction for other state employees.
In most metro school systems, officials said they’ll deal with the departures as smoothly as possible.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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110 comments Add your comment
Teacher2
December 2nd, 2012
7:54 pm
@N. GA Teacher
Thank you for your post! The point is teachers make less than those with similar levels of degrees/education. Many believe that teachers should be martyrs and are not allowed to think of themselves even in retirement!!
Quitting in December
December 2nd, 2012
9:51 pm
Just read my email and I am already stressed by the endless meetings and directives. I am quitting in December, and no I am not giving anyone a notice.
Georgia and education not compatible
December 2nd, 2012
10:22 pm
Rock on retirees…NEVER LOOK BACK! Enjoy the rest of your lives : )
sam
December 2nd, 2012
11:45 pm
If a teacher from a public school that does not pay into SS and wants to have more SS benefits, there is an alternative. The teacher can leave his/her system and work for a system that pays into SS. The last five years of his/her career has to be spent in a public system contributing to SS and then the teacher will not be penalized by being a government employee. Personally, I know teachers who have done this.
Private Citizen
December 3rd, 2012
1:46 am
stressed by the endless meetings and directives
they run teachers like… i don’t know what. and most of the meetings and directives are completely meaningless. and they clearly obstruct any sane person from doing their work. there’s no gate or rpm limited on this stuff, it comes at you from so many different sides, some bright shiny person far away gets an idea and before you know it, you’re sitting there in a meeting getting lectured about it in some showy abstract way. It’s like teachers are a house that needs to protected with termite treatment or pest control because they’re chewing us up like hungry termites feeding on cellulose. It is really is that bad and maybe the worse for teachers who care about their mission. What the management is doing is running off the good people and the ones who can deal with these numerous meetings and directives are the passive go-along-to-get-along crowd, the dominant mass, the ones who are “made to look bad” by teachers who deliver high performance. Many of these teachers who deal with things are nice, good people and are caring toward the kids, but they’re getting brainwashed and turned into zombies and for people with nothing else going for them, there is considerable fear in the workplace, so not ever a word is spoken. If you even raise your hand or make a comment at one of these directive meetings, you’ll regret it. For one thing, it takes up time, not matter how little, and everyone including the administrators just wants to do the role playing and get out of there. It is so soulless, it is just unbelievable.
Private Citizen
December 3rd, 2012
1:51 am
hey Quitting in December I’d give a dollar for you to take a screen shot of your email in-box and post it here, but that would be illegal because intra-system emails are confidential.
bbear
December 3rd, 2012
5:42 am
One point that I do not see mentioned very often here is the fact that teachers in Georgia contribute more than 6% of their pay to TRS. This is OUR money. If there was an opt out, I would do it and invest the money myself. With two teachers in our family, we contribute over $700 per month to TRS. Yet this is money that the public does not think we deserve to receive upon retirement?!?! Because we have zero faith that we will ever see this money again, we also have IRA’s, etc on our own. Of course we have had to freeze our deposits into those of late because we are making about $600 per month less than we were a few years ago due to furloughs, etc. Oh, and don’t forget the hundreds we contribute to social security that we will never get either.
Mary Grabar
December 3rd, 2012
10:23 am
All selflessly done, I am sure, for the good of the “children.”
Flock of Schoolgirls
December 3rd, 2012
5:02 pm
I know why the TRS decided to make the unconscionable decision to force teachers to retire mid yeat. This is all about the CHARTER SCHOOLS. The state, having dispensed with its highest paid teachers in order to hire brand new (read: cheap) teachers, will suddenly “find” extra money in its budget to divert to the charter schools and the charter school commission. I challenge anyone in state government to prove me wrong. Their game is as transparent as a con artist playing find the quarter under one of my shifting cups. They are just hoping that their shifty sleight of hands won’t be noticed by the masses as they march on towards their goal of fully privatized schools. About the children? Who cares if the kids lose their teachers mid-year? Money needed to be freed up for the charter schools. Wake up everyone….
Prof
December 3rd, 2012
8:03 pm
@ Flock of Schoolgirls. This certainly seems like the hard way to for the state to raise money for the charter schools and charter school commission, given that so many others besides K-12 public school teachers belong to TRS and are eligible for this base pay boost at retirement . These include all of the faculty and staff of the USG universities and colleges; the regional and county librarians; and the secretaries, public school nurses, and supervisors of the lunchroom, maintenance, warehouse, and transportation departments of those public K-12 schools.