Letter: Make retirement fair

With the current shortage of teachers in our schools, there has never been a better time to correct the brazen withholding of retirees' Social Security benefits than by repealing two federal programs, the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Exemption Provision.

Currently, anyone who is considering becoming a teacher, especially those making a midcareer change, must carefully weigh that choice against the fact that the federal government is likely to withhold a large percentage of the Social Security benefits they have already earned or will earn if they take a nonteaching job later.

I taught high school for five years but spent more than 35 years in the private sector. Because I qualify for a small Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) pension, the government thinks I am not entitled to all the money I paid into Social Security. I am docked thousands of dollars a year in Social Security and subjected to annual letters threatening to stop my benefits if I were to ever not report my TRS checks.

The name of one of those programs, Windfall Exemption Program, says it all. For all teachers who have switched careers, the government considers their own Social Security dollars as a "windfall" they don't deserve. That's not just expensive for us, it's insulting.

The problem may finally have a solution. A new bill, H.R. 82 - Social Security Fairness Act of 2021, introduced by Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, has 296 co-sponsors. In Illinois, 13 Democrats and two Republicans have signed on.

In the Senate, S. 1302, introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown, echoes the proposal. Both Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth - and four Republicans and two Independents - are among the bill's 40 co-sponsors.

Please contact your elected officials, even if they are co-sponsors, and urge them to get this bill passed this year. Our children deserve it, and so do our teachers.

Kay Severinsen

Naperville