Retirement Incentives
At the urging of CTA representatives and communications from members around the state, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee has agreed to decouple a CTA-backed retirement incentive bill and CTA-opposed measures to increase student teacher ratios in the class size reduction program.
The action by Senate Appropriations Chair Dede Alpert (D-San Diego) paves the way for action in the committee on CTA-supported AB 1207 by Assembly Member Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro). The Corbett measure would allow K-12 and community college districts to grant two years of additional service and age credit with the State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) as an incentive to encourage senior teachers to retire.
In a tight budget year, CTA, the retirement system, and the bill's author have viewed the proposal as very effective way to help districts reduce their salary costs and avoid certificated layoffs. Districts would realize savings because retained teachers would generally earn significantly lower salaries than the senior teachers who would retire.
By removing the "joining" of AB 1207 to class size boosts, the committee is moving closer to giving school districts an important tool to protect the jobs of hundreds of teachers by encouraging senior teachers to retire and by realizing salary cost savings.
CTA Members:
Urge members of the Senate to approve AB 1207 rapidly as long as it contains the language disconnecting it from the class size measures.
Make a point of calling Sen. Alpert at her Sacramento office at (619) 645-3094, to express support for the bill and to thank her for delinking AB 1207 from the other bills.