By Mike Myslinski
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Kern County teachers line the approach to the newly named William M. Thomas Terminal, where the congressman is about to be honored. Fruitvale TA President John Fowler and Panama-Buena Vista TA President Darla Bramlette (from left) join Bakersfield Elementary TA members - Sandy Siercks, Korrin Karas, Helen Collins, student Kari Reichert, Denise Childress, Joann Hardy and President Carol Reichert on the picket line.
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Inside the Bakersfield airport, California Congressman Bill Thomas was about to be honored at a dinner befitting his powerful stature on the occasion of a terminal being named after him. Outside, in sharp contrast, Kern County teachers lined the airport approach with picket signs asking, "Bill, Are You Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?"
The Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is a foe of legislation that would repeal punitive federal laws that prevent private-sector workers who move into public-sector jobs, like teaching, from collecting some or all of the Social Security benefits they earned prior to entering the public employee retirement system. In effect, the Government Pension Offset of 1977 and the Windfall Elimination Provision, passed in 1983, penalize teachers, firefighters, police and other civil servants in 14 states for their public service.
"It's only fair that we should all get what we pay into Social Security," says Panama-Buena Vista Teachers Association President Darla Bramlette, who organized the Nov. 12 demonstration.
Rep. Thomas opposes allowing a vote on the bill to repeal the Social Security offsets. Although Thomas is not the bill's only opponent, "he is one of the major stumbling blocks on this," says Bramlette.
HR 147 has bipartisan support from at least 300 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, but remains bottled up in committee. The bill, which was introduced last January by Reps. Howard Berman (D-Van Nuys) and Buck McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), is suffering from GOP opposition, the lack of momentum for changes to Social Security, the budget deficit and the cost of the repeal.
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Retired teacher James Schmidt carries his sign through the crosswalk.
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In the private sector, working at least 40 quarters entitles an employee to full Social Security benefits as well as to the benefits of a spouse who dies. But Standard-Teachers Association Co-President Nancy Albrecht says she will get neither as a result of the pension offset laws that Congress passed in an effort to stop what it wrongly considered a form of pension double-dipping.
Albrecht, who worked 20 years in the private sector before switching to the teaching profession 16 years ago, will lose out on thousands of dollars in Social Security income when she retires. "It's big money involved here," she says. "It's not fair. Why should I get punished?"
STA Co-President Diana Garchow says this subject is the one she gets the most calls about in her other position as NEA director representing CTA members in the counties of Kern, Kings, Inyo, Tulare and Mono.
"This is a huge issue out here, and one that affects whether people will decide to chose teaching as a second career," says Garchow. "Most teachers like to think they have pension stability, but they can lose two-thirds of the Social Security benefits they earned during prior jobs. It's a tragic thing."
Teachers need to be aware of such pension pitfalls, says Bakersfield Elementary Teachers Association President Carol Reichert.
"People don't believe they'll get hit — until they retire or their spouse dies. For second-career people, this is devastating. "It's like you worked all that time in the private sector for nothing."
For updates on the issue, visit the NEA website www.nea.org/socialsecurity/index.html. To urge Thomas to support HR 147, write him in care of his district office, 4100 Empire Drive, Suite 150, Bakersfield, CA 93309 or send an e-mail.
