By Ian Karbal | Pennsylvania Capital-Star
Robert McVay became a teacher in Franklin primarily because he loved the work.
He remembers a third grade teacher who repeatedly told him he was smart, and what that meant to him as a poor kid with eight siblings. He hoped to make the same difference for someone else.
But he also believed that being a public school teacher meant a guarantee of certain securities.
“I believed and I felt then that I could retire with a pension that would provide genuine retirement security,” McVay said. “But that all came to a screeching halt when I retired in 1998.”
McVay was unlucky, having retired before 2001. That’s when the Pennsylvania legislature passed a law enhancing pensions for public school teachers, but only for those retiring after the law went into effect. And since then, retired teachers like McVay, who stopped working before 2001, have seen no cost of living increase — something that used to be fairly common — in over 20 years.
That’s why McVay joined members of the Pennsylvania State Educators Association and other advocacy groups on Wednesday, asking the Senate to pass a bill to provide a cost of living increase for teachers who retired before 2001.
A bill to do just that, House Bill 1416, passed the House last November with 38 Republicans joining every Democrat in support, but it has been sitting in the Republican-controlled Senate ever since.
The median pension for a public school worker who retired before the enhancements took effect is $18,400, according to the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees. Most of those retirees would also be eligible for Social Security. For McVay, that’s meant moving to a mobile home in Florida and struggling to afford necessities like groceries.
“These individuals are the backbone of our community, having devoted their lives to educating our children,” said Rep. Steven Malagari (D-Montgomery), the sponsor of that HB 1416. “For far too long they have been asked to navigate retirement without the safety net they were promised.”
Malagari said, for him, the issue is personal. His mother was an elementary school teacher.
But with the legislative session coming to a close in six weeks, and only eight “session days” scheduled before that, it appears unlikely his bill will pass.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) said in a statement to the Capital-Star, “I have genuine empathy for those who retired before 2001. Obviously, we must be careful about the fragile nature of our pension funds. The question raised to advocates continues to be how we pay for it without increasing the burden on property taxpayers across this commonwealth.”
The same concerns were raised by House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) when the bill passed the House. An analysis by the Independent Fiscal Office found that the unfunded liability for both the State Employee Retirement System and the Public School Employee Retirement System combined would increase by over $1 billion.
A spokesperson for Sen. Cris Dush (R-Jefferson), the chair of the Senate state government committee where the bill was referred, did not respond to questions about whether he would hold a vote before the end of the session.
Other lawmakers spoke alongside McVay and Malagari.
Sen. Katie Muth (D-Montgomery) noted that legislators receive automatic cost of living increases to their salaries every year. The Legislature voted to suspend those in 2020, with the COVID pandemic, but voted to resume them shortly after.
Muth introduced her own bills in the Senate that would boost the pensions of retirees who left public school jobs before 2001, but they have not moved.
“My dream of being a teacher turned into a nightmare of poverty because of the legislature’s failure to act,” McVay said. “It is shameful. Let me be clear, I’m not looking for a handout. I’m simply asking the Legislature to recognize what we’re going through, take responsibility and pass the long overdue cost of living adjustment.
Forty House members joined or made an appearance at the rally in the Capitol rotunda on Wednesday. Seven senators showed up as well, including two Republicans, Sens. Camera Bartolotta (R-Washington) and Sen. Frank Farry (R-Bucks).
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.
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