Retire/Rehire Controversy
By Vince Leibowitz
Most folks who don't know a lot about the Teacher's Retirement System of Texas and who don't follow some of the more mundane parts of education policy and politics in Texas may not be familiar with the concept of "retire/rehire," whereby teachers may retire from active employment with a school district, and then go back to work for that or another school district while drawing both their TRS pension and a salary--sometimes without a loss of pension benefits.
There is a great article about the practice in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today, and rather than rehash bits and pieces of it, I'll just say it's worth a read for anyone following the Lege this session.
On that same note, the article mentions private companies that school districts may contract with to administrate "retire/rehire" programs. I've heard the pitch of one of these companies, JR3, back when I was covering an Edgewood Independent School District Board of Trustees meeting a few years ago.
If, after reading the article, you don't think there is serious potential for abuse of this system by local districts--or that it may be being abused at all, consider this "testimonial" statement from JR3's website by a school district:
The district was having financial difficulties and cash flow problems. The superintendent recommended that the district work with JR3 in order to encourage individuals who were at the top of the salary scale to retire in order to save the district money in the following areas: (a) health insurance, (b) worker's compensation, (c) unemployment insurance, and (d) FICA/Medicare. Thirty one individuals decided to take advantage of the JR3 option and the district has currently saved over $250,000 in personnel costs. JR3 offers options for those employees who are contemplating retirement.
Posted by Vince Leibowitz at March 13, 2005 02:26 PM
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