Educators still face lean state subsidies
The drop in the contribution school districts are expected to make this coming year in the Public School Employees Retirement System is all well and good, but school officials caution they still have a lean general education subsidy from the state to consider. State Rep. Peter J. Daley (D-California) said he could not predict whether the basic education subsidy will go up this year by the time the state budget gets a final vote, but he has a plan to help the school districts save some more money.
Daley is set to introduce a bill Monday, when the lawmakers return to session, that would give teachers an early retirement option.
He’s making the second attempt this year to move legislation to that effect, calling it a limited 30-and-out plan.
“I hope it will fly. They told me the COLA (cost-of-living adjustment for prior retirees) wasn’t going to fly and they passed that last week,” he said of the proposed bill’s chances.
What Daley proposes are early retirement windows this year and next year for teachers and a single window for state employees starting in July. This measure would allow those eligible with at least 30 years on the job to take full retirement instead of waiting the usual 35 years.
As a result, Daley said, school districts could replace teachers at the high end of the pay scale with those at starting pay, and the savings to the districts would be immediate. He reasoned the option also would open jobs to young teachers who would otherwise leave the area for work.
The regional Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) spokesman, Francis “Butch” Santicola, said he is excited about the 30-and-out possibility and has fielded a number of telephone calls from interested teachers PSEA represents.
“We’re going to push for it. It’s one of our priorities,” he said.
Santicola said the normal retirement with full benefits and no penalties is after 35 years of service at any age, age 62 with any amount or service or at least 30 years at age 60.
Santicola said he does not have an estimate of how many teachers this measure could affect, but he noted that school districts hired a large number of teachers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In Belle Vernon Area School District, Superintendent Dr. Charles Chandler said early retirement could have an effect because a number of teachers would qualify.
“It would be a tremendous boon to us,” he said.
The state Department of Education, in its school profiles for 2000-2001, lists a staff of 157 teachers in Belle Vernon, with 20 having 30 to 35 years’ experience and three with more than 35 years.
Echoing comments from other local educators, Chandler said the revised PSERS contribution rate was welcomed, but the school districts need more than the 1-percent raise Gov. Mark Schweiker proposed as the change in the 2002-2003 basic education subsidy.
The new fiscal year starts July 1. The school districts have until May 30 to come up with a tentative budget and June 30 to pass a final budget.
“We’re still hoping there will be an 11th hour additional addition to the state subsidy. The original 1 percent still leaves us considerably strapped,” Chandler said.
He said the Belle Vernon staff and administration have gone through two versions of spending plans for the upcoming budget, but they have yet to calculate a grand total, so he could not say if a tax raise would be needed. He said the school board’s finance committee will start meeting this week to go over each line item.
Also looking for more from the state than the governor proposed is Uniontown Area School District Superintendent Dr. Darrell Uphold.
“The reduction in the retirement fraction was good, but we’re waiting for the big one to come, and hopefully we will get a raise,” Uphold said.
Uphold was among the contingent of educators who represented the 25 school districts of Fayette, Greene and Washington counties in the Intermediate Unit 1 in a trip April 16 to Harrisburg to lobby the state officials for better funding.
Uphold said the message he got was that a change would be made in what the districts would have to contribute this coming year to the PSERS, the state would approve a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for previous retirees and that a 30-and-out attempt would be made. He said he also heard comments that there could be support in the Legislature for a higher basic education subsidy.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll get more than the 1 percent,” he said.
Besides the immediate assistance, the IU 1 group was asking for development of a “predictable and adequate” funding formula to be able to reduce property taxes. They presented a position paper to that effect.
Uphold said any future, long-term changes remain to be seen.