that is primarily due, most people agree, to low teacher salaries. The Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association’s plan is in trouble and the , 50 percent of whom are retired teachers, should bear the burden of rescuing it — rather than taxpayers — by accepting lower annual cost of living increases.
These two issues go together. If teachers are paid poorly over all the years of their active working lives, it stands to reason that their contributions to the retirement fund, which is a percentage of their income, will be low. Reports have indicated that the teacher retirement fund is in the worst shape of all PERA funds. Issues such as the Great Recession certainly don’t help, but neither does the fact that teachers haven’t been paid a reasonable salary in Colorado for a very long time.
Letap take the case of a 71-year-old retired teacher who taught for 34 years in a rural school district in Colorado, retiring in 2006. Over those years his highest salary was $38,500, after 34 years of teaching! Some would suggest that he should have done something other than teach if he wanted to earn more money, but there are a few thousand students who would disagree, many of whom correspond regularly to say how much what they learned from him has benefited their lives, enabling them to become successful, contributing citizens of our country.
Now he is retired and has been for over 10 years. His annual retirement income is $30,000. Because he was a teacher and paying into PERA, he had very little social security income, only a few odd jobs he took in the summers to help support his family as he raised two sons. His monthly social security is $196.00.
What is and was this teacher worth? Consider for a moment your own education. If your parents had had to pay the actual cost of your education, would you be where you are today? If you were paying, or had had to pay, the entire cost of your child’s education, K-12, what would it have cost? How important is it to have an educated citizenry, an educated work force? What would happen to real estate values if your school system was failing to educate students? What new businesses would locate here?
According to , our state is , behind such states as Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia. Students graduating from our universities with teaching degrees are leaving Colorado in droves for New Mexico, Wyoming and other states that pay better and offer benefits that demonstrate their respect for teachers. The average salary for all teachers in Colorado is only $36,700, while the average for teachers in rural districts is $22,700. According to PERA, the average retiree is receiving $37,000 annually and 50 percent of retirees are teachers. In rural Colorado counties, benefits are as low as $29,616. This, according to the governor, is a good deal.
For years the citizens of Colorado have failed to properly and fairly compensate teachers. Now we see the results: teacher shortages and retired teachers who are reduced to living far below the median income of most people in Colorado.
Is this what teachers are worth? Is this how much Colorado citizens value education and the people who provide it? How important is your education and that of your children’s?
It makes no sense that the people we claim to value most, our children, we entrust to those we apparently feel are not worth reasonable and fair wages. Yes, Governor, the taxpayers should bear the burden, because they are the beneficiaries of an education system that relies on teachers and they have been for a long time.
Itap time they step up to their responsibilities.
Nancy Sanger is a retired educator. She works as a consultant in schools in Colorado and around the country.
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