Virginia Education Savings

The move by the Agency of Public Finance Committee to eliminate pension benefits for health care for state employees to come, it will be harder to maintain the quality of educators in the State of West Virginia .

All levels of education will suffer - from kindergarten to college.

Following a 7-2 vote by the board PEIA summer, all state employees hired after July 30, 2010 will not receive any help paying their health insurance premiums in retirement.

If such a decision may seem insignificant to many educators entering the system now more attentive to them - including the current education majors WVU - predict the consequences will be heavy for their future.

The move will mean thousands of dollars per year for retired teachers.

(Government employees) will pay 100 percent of their insurance premiums. In today's dollars, they will have to pay about $ 1,000 a month, "said Joshua Sword, political director of the west branch of the Virginia American Federation of Teachers and voting member of the PEIA Finance Board.

"Coverage can only be a little cheaper than $ 1,000, but coverage of the family will be closer to $ 1,500, he said.

For teachers with family coverage, the decision could mean PEIA $ 18,000 out of pocket each year until they become eligible for Medicare.

This projection does not include the inflation of health care, which, according to the National Coalition on Health Care, was about four times the rate of normal inflation over the last decade.

PEIA The decision to help reduce the debt resulting from the future unfunded liability for post employment benefits of the state, which is now 7 billion.

"Basically, the savings result from not subsidizing the employees when they retire," said Diane Holley-Brown, Department of West Virginia administration, e-mail.

Currently, retirees pay about 30 percent of their insurance premiums in retirement - the remaining majority is provided by the State.

For teachers and state employees, these benefits have long been used in lieu of salary increases.

According to Sword, the elimination of the provision will impact on West Virginia University and other public colleges in the state.

"Any public official, whether a teacher, school service personnel, teacher or staff member classified at WVU ... will not receive any help paying their insurance premiums, he said.

This means that any teacher who takes a break from the University teaching with the plan to return after 2010 will also not receive health benefits in retirement.

This raises the question of whether the plan of the University to hire 100 additional teachers over the next three years will be possible.

In addition, the WVU graduate education in the face of increasing starting salaries and better benefits in neighboring states, choosing to remain in this state to teach?

With starting salaries below $ 30,000 and no health care plan for retirement, which seems unlikely.

That's when most types of anti-education throw their argument totally inept that "teachers should not teach for money."

If such a request should be met with a quick slap to the face, I will say this: Teachers should not only teach for money. Except, of course, they are bad at math. Then by all means, do it for money.

Make teacher salaries more competitive with the private sector means that those most able and intelligent (those with a higher market value) will consider education instead of more lucrative private sector.

By eliminating a retirement benefit while providing essential low wages, this situation will continue to employ teachers of world heritage.