Stronger pension system advocacy happening at Legislature
Minnesota’s school staffing shortage was already a problem before COVID-19, but now it’s at crisis levels. Education Minnesota knows we need competitive compensation packages that attract the best educators to the profession and keep them in our schools.
Education Minnesota created a Pension Task Force this year, which has been hard at work discussing and planning for how to advocate for a stronger pension system for all our members. The task force is chaired by Vice President Ryan Fiereck and began its work Feb. 15. As the group’s work has progressed, a number of pension bills have been proposed in the Minnesota Legislature this session.
As of press time, none of the bills referenced below have made it to committee so far and more pension bills may be proposed. Education Minnesota is actively organizing members to contact lawmakers to spread the message that the state needs to invest more in educator pensions.
The state Legislature can enhance retirement benefits to recognize and reward teachers hard work on behalf of students. There are three bills the Minnesota Legislature could consider to do just that.
- HF3771: Ensures a secure retirement by increasing the cost-of-living adjustment for retirees in all pension plans to 2.5 percent a year starting on Jan. 1, 2023.
- HF3773/SF3558: Provides 24 months of service credit for every 12 months of service for public school employees for 2020, 2021 and 2022. This makes it more affordable for school employees to retire earlier if they choose.
- HF3942/SF3649: Brings back Rule of 90. This allows an educator to retire when the employee’s age plus number of years of eligible service amount to 90, without a reduction in retirement benefits.
Go to www.educationminnesota.org/advocacy/at-the-legislature to write your legislators and Gov. Tim Walz and tell them to improve retirement benefits to recruit and retain the best educators for our students.
