Teachers across the state are fretting over the governor?s threat to freeze $63 million in state aid for retirement benefits.
Baltimore County would have to pick up the tab for $7.6 million in state funding for teacher pension plans, and Baltimore City would have to pay $6 million, according to Gov. Martin O?Malley?s “doomsday” budget reductions. The state can avoid these spending cuts, O?Malley said, if lawmakers pass his slots and tax plan during the special session, which starts today.
Reducing retirement benefits will hurt efforts to improve teacher retention because many educators are eventually lured away to neighboring states, such as Pennsylvania, which have better pension packages, teachers say.
Teachers worked hard to encourage legislators to funnel more money into retirement pay after they made leaders aware of Maryland?s ranking of last in the nation in 2005 for retirement benefits for educators, said Clara Floyd, president of the Maryland State Teachers Association.
“We want to recruit young teachers, but they figure out they can go to Pennsylvania and other better-paying states,” she said.
Maryland teachers make an average of 42 percent of their ending salary after 30 years of service, and teachers hired since 1998 can earn as much as 54 percent, but some Pennsylvania school systems offer 75 percent, said David Helfman, executive director of the teachers association.
The Baltimore Teachers Union plans to travel to Annapolis today to lobby lawmakers to preserve state aid for retirement benefits, said Marietta English, union president.
Brian Morris, chairman of the city school board, said he appreciates the governor making Marylanders aware of the gravity of the $1.7 billion budget deficit.
“But the issue of teacher retirement funding is critical in our efforts to improve the quality of teaching happening in our schools,” he said.
Teachers have already successfully lobbied a change in education funding ? even before the special session begins.
