Some Ohio teachers are missing the first days of classes in August to avoid penalties to their retirement payments.
The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reports state law requires full-time teachers who retire and are rehired to forfeit retirement payments for the month if they return less than 60 days after retiring. If an employee works in June, the Ohio's State Teacher Retirement System considers the retirement date to be July.
The newspaper said retirement system officials could not provide a statewide count of teachers rehired after retiring. Many of those teachers are "double dippers" who receive retirement payments and district paychecks.
The retirement system's rule leaves substitutes covering some rehired teachers' classes at the start of the year.
So, at the time when teachers are supposed to be getting to know their kids and establishing critical precedents and procedures for the start of the school year, many teachers are taking a flier? Oh, just those double dipping, I see.
Let me say this. I have a relative who retired and now has been rehired. I can safely say that she did this for all the right reasons. In fact, it saved her district money and allowed them to keep a teacher or two that they wouldn't have been able to, even at the cost of my relatve losing the chance to get the max retirement. That is the type of woman she is. For her, it really is about the kids. And where is my relative as school begins? Is she staying absent to avoid this penalty? Heck no. She is with her kids, teaching them the rules and procedures they need to be successful primary students, as she has for over 30++years. This woman has given her all to a district and administration that has never, ever fully appreciated her. Some of her students have come back to teach both at her district and around SW Ohio. She is one of the rarities of her generation: a teacher who still cares. She is one of my inspirations to go into education, just don't tell her that.
So, it galls me that these people are skipping out on such a critical time. Why come back at all if you are only going to hang around for cashola? This is why common sense reform is needed.
Hat tip to our good friend and former guest on the show Seth Morgan.
