Retired teachers getting a bad rap

Your comparison of teacher’s 3 percent cost of living increases to Social Security recipients receiving little or no increase in their allowance is misguided. My husband, a retired teacher with over 40 years in public schools, worked the first 10 years in a state where he was required to pay Social Security instead of into a retirement fund. The next 30 years he worked second jobs to make ends meet, and again Social Security was taken out. Today, as a retired educator, he is penalized because of the Windfall Elimination Provision, actually losing 60 percent of eligible benefits from Social Security.

However, state legislators actually voted themselves exempt from WEP, collecting their state pensions as well as Social Security. Perhaps what’s fair for one group should be fair for all retirees.

He didn’t become an educator to become wealthy, but because he truly believed that he could make a difference. Retirement benefits never entered his mind, just something that was required and deducted from every paycheck. Our professional acquaintances would never have thought of being a teacher because the earning potential was much greater in the business world and so they could take advantage of the many tax loopholes that were, and still are, available.

Well, things have changed. Teachers who never complained about lower salaries, advanced degrees paid for out of their own pocket, second jobs and many stipends needed to keep their financial heads above water, are taking a bad shot, due to promised benefits guaranteed by the public that voted for the state legislators who guaranteed these benefits in our state Constitution. Stop the teacher bashing and instead support one of the most honorable professions in the world.

Franci Galinsky

Buffalo Grove