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Editorial
Schools lose valuable skills with early retirement
Thursday, March 24, 2011
One of the keys to success in any business is having the right people in the right position doing the right job.
If the enterprise can't afford to pay those people, however, the system won't work.
That's what many schools are facing, the most recent the Kearney Public Schools, where 24 teachers, with more than 600 years of teaching experience, are being paid to leave the classroom.
In Kearney, teachers can apply for early retirement at 55 years of age if they have at least 30 years of experience.
When schools face tough economic times, they have to cut the biggest expense, which is salaries. Those with the highest salaries are the teachers with the most experience, those whose elimination will have the biggest impact on the budget.
Like many American workers, teachers are paid according to salary schedules negotiated through collective bargaining. While good for the teachers, it's bad for students, often removing good teachers just as they reach the peak of their classroom skills.
Such teachers often feel they are too young to retire completely, however, and find their way back into the classroom at places like parochial schools. That's good for the other schools, but it comes at the expense of the public school.
Ideally, a way could be found to reward teachers and other professionals for their skills and experience without pricing them out of the labor market.