Let's be fair

By Laurie Barnoski
Special to WE

I missed the "good retirement plan," TRS 1, by one day. To qualify for that plan, the teacher had to be working and paying into the retirement system before Oct. 1, 1977. After teaching for four years in a middle school in Pennsylvania, I moved to Washington in 1976 and began substituting. I was finally offered a full-time teaching job in a high school on Friday, Sept. 30, 1977. I reported to work on Monday, October 3, per the principal's instructions.

I will have to work 10 extra years which will bring my total to 42 years or lose $310,000 because I did not start work on Friday, September 30. My union attorney did all he could and then I hired a private attorney for $5,000 and went before an administrative law judge. Even though I signed my contract before Oct. 1, 1977 -- the cut-off date -- the judge stated in her ruling that I was not paying into the retirement system until my first day of work, October 3. I lost the case.

All teachers who are not in TRS I are in the same dilemma. We have to work an unreasonable amount of years to pull in a healthy percentage of our salary for a pension. In my case I have to work until I am 65 to earn an annual pension of $31,000. Since many of us started teaching right after we graduated from college at the age of 22, we are looking at teaching careers of 42 or more years. This is unacceptable. Currently there is a mandatory plan, TRS III, for new teachers which drops the retirement age to 62, but there are serious drawbacks inherent in the plan.

It is time for WEA to put pressure on Washington legislators to honor teachers. We are professionals who are entitled to retire after teaching 30 years. At the end of a career dedicated to helping children, we should be able to expect a fair and reasonable pension.

Let's face the facts. There are only a few teachers who will be as effective educators at age 65 as they were at 35. Yet, the retirement system dictates that teachers stay in the classroom until the teachers are ineffective, they develop health problems that force them out, or they die on the job.

I have been proud of the work I have done in my career. For the past 32 years, I have worked with 8,000 teenagers. I have educated 64 yearlong classes of at-risk students plus 54 yearlong classes of honors students. I have taught numerous classes in creative writing, poetry and speech. I have been the Key Club adviser and literary magazine editor for 26 years. I have given teaching my all. I am a person with a lot of energy, but I am human. I am starting to get tired.

There is no career ladder for teachers. My parents keep asking me when I am going to be a counselor or principal. They do not understand that as a teacher there is not a progression I can follow that will give me a change and increase my pay. Teachers cannot look to a different place in education where they can do something else that is not as intense as teaching. There is no slot in the district office where they can develop curriculum. They cannot be hired as professional mentors who will travel around the district helping those teachers who need guidance in their profession. They cannot even be hired as permanent substitutes available each day for a specific building or district. There is no money to fund these ideas. Teachers in TRS II or III have to teach for 40-plus years, quit with no income for several years, or take a reduced amount which in my case would come to $5,720 a year.

The young teachers in my Washington school hear their older colleagues talking. The ones who were eligible for TRS I and worked 30 years will earn 60 percent of their salary when they retire; they are not impacted by the issue. Those of us who have to work until we are 65 occasionally rant and rave. I hear a 26-year-old teacher murmur to her young colleague, "How will I ever make it?" This is sad. I want to help change the unfair pension plan for her even if my situation will never change.

Last June, after 32 years of teaching high school English, I had a big decision to make. I knew it was time to leave when I still loved what I did and was still respected in my profession. However, the stress of the job was taking its toll on my health, my family and my spirit. As I saw it I had three options. First, I could quit and accept no annual pension of $31,000 for 10 more years. Second, I could quit and try to find another job in my small city that will give me the same pay I am receiving now. My friends who are my age, 55, tell me that employers are not lining up to hire them. The last possibility was that I could keep teaching until I became ineffective, disabled or until I died. Which option did I choose? I quit and gave up $310,000.

I urge WEA to fight for its members. After 30 years of dedicated service, K-12 public school teachers deserve to retire expecting a fair and reasonable pension.

Laurie Barnoski, who taught at Tumwater High School, retired in 2005.

Reach WEA Editor Linda Woo at lwoo@WashingtonEA.org, via postal mail at WEA, PO Box 9100, Federal Way, WA 98063-9100; phone 253-765-7027 (or toll-free outside Seattle-Tacoma: 800-622-3393 ext. 7027); or fax 253-946-7612. We welcome story ideas, letters to the editor and suggestions for improving WE-Washington Education, or WEA Online.