Bob Richards is a teacher at Stockbridge High School. He's been teaching for 16 years and has a pension plan. The bill wouldn't affect his retirement. It only affects new teachers, but Richards says it's a bad idea... He says without a pension, fewer people are going to want to teach.
"I'm looking at hiring and retaining the best teachers possible for Michigan school districts,” Richards said. “And if they can go out of state to get a better retirement plan and better salaries I think they'll follow the money and go."
He says that's something that will hurt the students and the state in the long run, because without strong teachers, the classroom and the workforce suffer.
David Crim with the Michigan Education Association agrees with Richards, and says having a pension is an attractive benefit: "It's one of the few remaining promises that school employees have,” Crim said. They don't go into it for the money. In the last decade we've seen stagnant pay, exorbitant increases on their benefits, now they're taking away their pension."
But Representative Thomas Albert (R)- Lowell, says it's being replaced with good reason. To save state money.
"We are 40 billion dollars in debt with the public school retirement system,” Rep. Albert said. “That's pension plus retiree health care. The system is broken. How far in debt do we have to get before we realize there's a problem?"
He says it'll be expensive to fix this problem, but it'll be worth it in the long run. He says it'll be coming out of insurance agency pockets instead of the states'. He believes the current system is inevitably going to collapse on itself.
Within the next 20 years, our debt will come to a point where we'll have to make a choice: are we gonna fund education or are we gonna fund our liabilities?" Rep Albert said.
He's hoping this bill is the answer.
