Facts on teacher pensions, hours

As I an educator in a Northwest suburb, I’d like to respond to Jim Mark’s recent entertaining yet slanted letter.

First, I have never worked only nine months. I’ve always had to supplement my teacher’s salary with work during the summer, often with low-paying manual labor. I did this to maintain a middle class level of living for my spouse and three children.

This level required that I also coach most of the school year. Thus, I never worked 40 hours a week. Indeed, I managed to acquire a master’s degree plus 50 hours of graduate credit while working a job and a half. I worked my tail off to get to the level of pay you mention. And now I am faced with a pay reduction for the next three years. The automatic increases you reference are no longer true in many districts.

Second, you note that “we pay into our pensions, but we wind up getting a lot more than we pay in, but that’s OK, because the taxpayers make up the difference.” That’s how pensions work Mr. Marks. They invest the money placed in it and it is supposed to create money for retirees. This is basic finance common to any retirement plan. And the taxpayers haven’t made up for any difference. Conversely, the state of Illinois has routinely neglected to contribute to our pension and still our pension caretakers have kept it solvent.

Additionally, despite having the proper amount of credits and working hard while paying into Social Security, current law dictates that I will only be able to collect 50 percent of what non-teachers would collect with the same amount of credits.

Are there benefits to teaching? Of course, such as when students are taught to write objectively and accurately.

Thomas Nance

Island Lake