Too
much for teachers
Star-Ledger Editorial • Monday, November
01, 2004
New Jersey's teachers deserve our respect and
admiration. They deserve to be reasonably well-compensated.
Attracting and keeping the best and the brightest teachers
to our classrooms is critically important.
Yet New Jersey legislators are piling on benefits for
teachers (and other public employees) that the state cannot
possibly afford. A way must be found to reward teachers and
attract qualified new ones without wrecking the state
budget.
Currently, educators, who make up two-thirds of those
eligible for health benefits, and other public employees --
who retire with 25 years of service -- get lifetime free
health insurance.
The benefit, already available to 81,500, will cost the
state a staggering $911 million this year in annual
premiums. That number is going to climb to a whopping $1
billion for the first time in the upcoming budget year --
five times what it was just five years ago. And without
changes, it will reach more than $2 billion in 2007,
according to projections by the nonpartisan Office of
Legislative Services.
Lawmakers now want to do even more for teachers and
other public employees. Pending legislation would prevent
the state from ever increasing co-payments for health
insurance or from requiring retirees to use HMOs.
Under the legislation, this costly benefit would go not
only to retirees but to any educator at a public school or
county college who has at least five years on the job
today.
The politically powerful New Jersey Education
Association says this costly undertaking is necessary to
retain educators now that there is a teacher shortage. But
it's foolhardy to bankrupt future generations to get quality
teachers today. There has to be a better way, and in indeed
here are some things that have been done elsewhere.
- Signing bonuses. Massachusetts received 800
applications after it offered exceptional teachers
$20,000 signing bonuses -- paid over four years.
- Day care. Buford City, a school district
outside of Atlanta, and Carmel Clay, a district outside
of Indianapolis, have subsidized on-site day care centers
for preschool children of teachers.
- Closing costs. As a way to attract new
teachers, Baltimore has offered to pay closing costs
associated with purchasing a house.
- College loan help. A program that reimburses
teachers for all or a portion of college loans might
attract teachers.
- Private donations. In South Carolina, where
African-American males made up just 1 percent of the
teaching force, state officials used private donations to
jump-start a program that has produced 60 new
teachers.
- Using retired teachers on a part-time basis might be
another alternative.
Wooing and keeping talented, energetic teachers is not
easy. We don't pretend to suggest that it is, but health
costs are the fastest-growing expense in any budget. Doing
unnecessary things that will cause that figure to grow even
more rapidly without giving future lawmakers any leeway to
adjust costs simply does not make sense. There has to be
some way to keep high-quality teachers in New Jersey
classrooms without mortgaging the next generation.
© 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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