IT’S TIME, PUBLIC EDUCATION EMPLOYEES and RETIREES

            There is so much to share with you in this blog post.  The 2018 General Election is just around the corner (November 6), and this is a critical election for public education employees and retirees.  Two months after this election, January 8, 2019, the 86^th Legislature will convene.  “Critical” doesn’t even begin to describe what this session means for all of us.

            So let’s get started on what we all need to know.  PLEASE NOTE that wherever you see blue words in the paragraphs below that are underlined, there is a LINK to the website/video/article I am discussing.  Click on them!

1.  According to the TRS website, there are currently 1.5 MILLION TRS members.  Can you all imagine the force we would be if even half of us were to get engaged?  What about one million?  (We can dream, can’t we?)  Heck, let’s shoot for all 1.5 MILLION members!  Each of us plays a role in making this happen.

2.  If you haven’t studied the Texans for Public Education ratings of our governor, lieutenant governor, senators, representatives, and State Board of Education members, start NOW!  We need to 1) keep/elect the “friendly” ones, 2) block vote against those rated “unfriendly,” and 3) elect “neutral” candidates if their opponent is “unfriendly” or block vote against them if their opponents are “unfriendly.”  (To see the ratings, scroll down on the T4PE home page—link above--until you see “Our Ratings.”  They did extensive research on each candidate and had members vote on the ratings, as well.)  SHARE!  SHARE!  SHARE!  November 6 will be here before you know it.

3.  As those of us in public education know, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has played a significant role in the decline of our benefits.  Last weekend, I had the opportunity to join an active McAllen ISD teacher and a McAllen ISD high school senior for an interview with his opponent, Mike Collier. That interview is an hour long, but I URGE you to listen to it in its entirety. He explains the predicament we are in, how he can turn it around, what property taxes have to do with it, and much more.  Once you have listened to it, please share with other voters!  Remember our goal—1.5 MILLION TRS MEMBERS…AND more!

4.  I cannot express enough how strongly I feel that every public school superintendent and every public school board trustee should be in this fight with us.  They are supposed to lead us, protect us, and support us.  Therefore, I was thrilled to hear about the courage and the conviction Dr. Kent P. Scribner, superintendent of Fort Worth ISD, showed by inviting Pastor Charles Johnson, founder of Pastors for Texas Children, to speak at the district's convocation.  (Listen from 44:54 to 1:10:30.)  This proves we are not alone!  Now we ALL need to get OUR superintendents, OUR board trustees, OUR former students and their families, OUR families, and OUR communities to stand with us!

5.  Here are more of the endless stories of the healthcare nightmare active and retired public education employees are living (I removed their last names):

 
         (Ernestina taught 18 years in Houston and then moved
                                                                     to the RGV, where she completed her career.  She is
                                                                     under 65.)

 (Faith has been teaching for 20 years; 

                            employees in her district are covered under TRS ActiveCare. )                                                

6.  A fellow TRS member posted on FB this week about something Gov. Greg Abbott said.  It happened yesterday during a roundtable discussion in Comal ISD, where the governor was joined by Sen. Donna Campbell, State Rep. Kyle Biedermann, and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath. During that discussion, Gov. Abbott had the audacity to say, “We want to structure the compensation plan that would be the very best educators on the pathway to earning a six-figure salary.”  I would be the first one in line to thank the governor…if I bought it.  But this is the same elected official who allowed this nightmare to happen to us.  It has happened under HIS watch!  And while we have shouted from the rooftops for the past EIGHT MONTHS about our healthcare nightmare, he has not so much as ACKNOWLEDGED our cries for help!  Calls, posts, emails—he has addressed none of them.  Story after story after story has been posted, yet he has remained silent.

            We have just a little over two months, My Colleagues.  It’s time.  We are 1.5-MILLION-MEMBERS STRONG—and that doesn’t include our family members, friends, former students and their families, superintendents, board trustees, and communities.  IT’S TIME!

Chris Ardis retired in May of 2013 following a 29-year teaching career. She now helps companies with business communications and social media and works as a sales coordinator for Tony Roma's and Macaroni Grill. Chris can be reached at cardis1022@aol.com. (Photo by Linda Blackwell, McAllen)

Governor Abbott’s Silence is Deafening: Despite the suffering of public education employees and retirees across Texas, not one word from the governor

            Last Friday, public education employees and retirees across the state of Texas were dealt yet another blow.  The board of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which is the retirement system for all public education employees---teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, maintenance workers, librarians, custodians, nurses, secretaries, counselors,police officers, social workers, sign language interpreters, classroom aides, cafeteria workers, and administrators—voted to reduce the rate of return assumption from 8 percent to 7.25 percent, despite our pleas.  We pleaded with them not to go lower than 7.5 percent, knowing that to do so would likely mean those of us who are retired would likely never see a COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) and those still working in our schools could see a change in their future pensions.  Keep in mind, the rate wasn’t lowered because our pension fund is performing so poorly.  On the contrary.  In 2017, TRS saw a 12 percent rate of return, which is considered stellar in the pension-fund world.  

            It was a split vote, with the four who, like us, have to live with TRS benefits voting against the 7.25.  Trustee Dr. Greg Gibson made a motion to adopt a 7.35 percent rate of return assumption.  It was seconded by Trustee Dick Nance.  Gibson, Nance, Trustee Dolores Ramirez, and Trustee Nanette Sissney voted in favor of this motion.  Chairman Jarvis Hollingsworth and trustees Joe Colonnetta, David Corpus, John Elliott, and Christopher Moss voted nay, so the motion failed.  Elliott immediately made a motion to adopt a 7.25 percent rate of return assumption, and it was seconded by Corpus.  Those two, along with Hollingsworth, Colonnetta, and Moss voted in favor, and in another split vote, Ramirez, Gibson, Nance, and Sissney voted against the motion.  With a simple majority, the motion passed. Now, our only hope is for the Texas Legislature to increase their TRS contribution rate from the current 6.8 percent to 8.18 percent, which means an additional $786 million.  And that’s just for TRS to maintain a 30-year funding period.    (The state’s contribution to the Employees Retirement System of Texas, or ERS, is 9.5 percent.  This pension system provides pensions and healthcare for all other state employees and for retired legislators. That is a 2.7 percent difference between what the state contributes to their own pension fund and what they contribute to the pension fund of all of us who spend our careers working in Texas public schools.)  This critical need for $786 million doesn’t include the money needed to end our TRS healthcare nightmare.

            Since January, active and retired educators in every region of Texas have been living a healthcare nightmare, compliments of the 2017 Legislative Session.  And yet, for seven months, Gov. Greg Abbott has remained silent.

·         These are only a small number of the healthcare issues public education employees and retirees have been facing since January.  Yet Gov. Abbott remained silent.

·         We shared even more stories.  Yet Gov. Abbott remained silent.

·         Retired teacher and administrator Adrienne Gray Myers shared her tragic healthcare story.  Yet Gov. Abbott remained silent. 

·         Sen. José Menéndez called for a Special Session to address our healthcare.  Yet Gov. Abbott remained silent.

·         Rep. Ryan Guillen called for a Special Session.  Yet Gov. Abbott remained silent.

·         Rep. Terry Canales called for a Special Session.  Yet Gov. Abbott remained silent.

·         I shared the story of 9-year-old Kensley, whose mom is a Texas teacher, and their TRS healthcare battle dealing with Kensley’s diagnosis of thyroid cancer.  Yet Gov. Abbott remained silent.

·         Public education employees and retirees and people who support us have called, tweeted, and sent mail and email to the governor’s office pleading with him to address our nightmare.  Yet Gov. Abbott remained silent. 

·         Because all else has failed, last week, Rep. Terry Canales asked the governor to declare TRS an emergency item at the start of the 2019 Legislative Session.  Yet Gov. Abbott has remained silent.

     

            Not one word to the public education employees across the state who work in our schools educating, feeding, counseling, and providing so much more for Texas students.  Not one word to those of us who retired, believing the state’s promise to provide us with a pension and with affordable healthcare.  Not one word to the 1.5 million TRS members explaining why the state’s contribution rate and healthcare for retired legislators is so much better than the state’s contribution rate and healthcare for retired educators. 

            While we suffer physically, financially, and emotionally, Gov. Abbott remains silent.

Chris Ardis retired in May of 2013 following a 29-year teaching career. She now helps companies with business communications and social media and works as a sales coordinator for Tony Roma's and Macaroni Grill. Chris can be reached at cardis1022@aol.com. (Photo by Linda Blackwell, McAllen)