Opinion | Retirement must be factored in with considering teacher salaries
A recent Guest Commentary in Bridge Magazine on Michigan education spending cited stagnant teacher salaries as a barrier to improving Michigan’s K-12 education system. As a follow-up, we would add that making good on the promise of a decent retirement for school personnel should also be a high priority and goes right along with the goal of paying teachers a competitive wage and enhancing the education of Michigan children.
Taken together, competitive salaries and a solid retirement program will go far to help recruit qualified teachers and other school personnel. As we analyze where we need to make changes to improve education, we shouldn’t view retirement system costs as being in competition with operations budgets for school districts.
The column by the Citizens Research Council put a spotlight on the increased cost of funding teacher retirements borne by school districts, but didn’t explain two key factors:
- The state’s failure to keep school funding in line with inflation; and
- Past decisions by policymakers in Lansing that led to underfunding the retirement system, although it is now on more solid footing thanks to multiple recent reforms.
After adjusting for inflation, total K-12 education funding declined by 30 percent between 2002 and 2015, according to the 2019 Education Policy Report by Michigan State University. Seventy-four percent of the decline was due to declining state support for schools. Per-pupil revenue declined 22 percent during the same period. Among all states, Michigan is dead last in K-12 funding growth.
We believe it’s the state’s responsibility to make teaching more attractive through competitive wages, up-to-date facilities and an adequately funded pension system, which has not always received the support it deserves.
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