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When school districts outside of Chicago negotiate contracts, they do so with the assurance that the state will pick up the tab on pensions. To control growing pension costs, lawmakers capped salary bumps at 6 percent in 2005. This year, the cap tightened to 3 percent.

Illinois’ teachers unions have collected more than 15,000 signatures on petitions urging state lawmakers to reverse that measure.

State Rep. Will Davis (D-Homewood) chairs the House K-12 appropriations committee, and was involved in budget negotiations.

“I mean, things like this are tough conversations. But you know there’s also a manner in which we also have to look at the long-term viability of our state,” he says. “Not everybody’s in favor of raising taxes for the things we want to pay for. Sometimes we do have to make relatively tough decisions, and this fits into that category.”

Senator Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) says districts are free to offer bigger raises, but will have to kick in pension costs for any amount that exceeds the cap.

* And the Dispatch-Argus editorializes in favor of expanding the spiking limit…

As leaders continue to grapple with how to create more meaningful change, here’s some low-hanging fruit lawmakers must pluck:

Immediately expand the effort to reduce pension spiking for all public employee pensions, local and state.

* Meanwhile, on to the teacher shortage…

Nearly 80% of Illinois districts report problems with teacher shortages. In Moline, the applicant pool for Special Education positions is sliced in half. Knoxville can’t get any applicants for its openings.

“You may have classrooms that are manned by a substitute teacher because you have no applicants,” [Regional Superintendent Angie Zarvell] continued.

With fewer applicants, experience and quality also decline. Some districts won’t fill openings. That could mean larger class sizes or not offering the class.

This is all part of a downward spiral that hurts teacher morale and security.

* And…

Gov. Bruce Rauner last week signed one new law, HB5627, that is supposed to ease Illinois’ teacher shortage by making it easier for out-of-state and retired teachers to get into Illinois classrooms.

Jontry said Illinois schools are still facing a teacher shortage. He said he expects fewer school districts across the state to have a school bus driver in the fall.

As we’ve seen over the past few years as the economy has strengthened it’s become much more difficult to find part-time bus drivers for the low pay most districts and private providers offer.

* More on the bill Gov. Rauner signed…

Restrictive certification requirements and a lack of candidates has made it difficult to fill some positions, said Todd DeTaeye, Moline-Coal Valley School District Assistant Superintendent of Administration and Human Resources.

“It is becoming more of a challenge to find qualified bilingual teachers, special education teachers, foreign language teachers, and school psychologists,” Mr. DeTaeye said. “When we do find qualified teachers in these areas, the pool of candidates is not nearly as deep as it has been in the past.”

Senate Bill 863 will make it easier for out-of-state teachers to work in Illinois. The legislation allows teachers to become licensed in Illinois if they have completed a comparable state-approved educator program, or hold a comparable and valid license with similar grade and subject credentials from another state.

* Back to pensions with Stand for Children Illinois…

Last year, we raised the alarm (again) about the unfair TRS Federal Funds Rate. It proved a tough issue for school districts to plan around. Should they hire certified teachers to improve student outcomes, but pay a nearly 40% pension surcharge on those federally funded dollars? Or, should they purchase educational materials that might not have the biggest impact on students but would avoid the pension surcharge, giving them more bang for their buck? Creative accounting is not supposed to be in the job description for school leaders, but the federal funds rate put them in that position.

Last summer, after years of difficult decisions and budgetary jiu-jitsu for school district leaders, education advocates’ hard work paid off when Springfield passed and enacted a law that returned an additional $80 million annually to the classrooms of underserved students. By removing the pension surcharge, districts are now empowered to make decisions in the best interests of their students, not their bottom line.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 10:27 am

Comments

==Nearly 80% of Illinois districts report problems with teacher shortages.==

People aren’t lining up to be scapegoated by their neighbors, work until 67, and have their pension shortchanged? Color me shocked.

Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 10:39 am
In Decatur, with a bunch of retirements and someone leaving at MacArthur high school, the science department of 7 is down to one. The hope is that some of the retirees will come back and help. With the law change they can teach up to 120 days but that obviously does not cover the whole year

Comment by illdoc Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 10:44 am
Losing a teacher today to the suburbs. Almost certain that I will not be able to replace him.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 10:58 am
My wife worked in private sector fully qualified for social security then became a teacher. She got not a dime of social security or any money back she put in. She got teacher pension or nothing. She also would get none of mine if I died first. How fair is that. I made a mistake she did get or I did )259 in death benefits

Comment by DuPage Saint Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 11:15 am
I’m sure out-of-state teachers are lining up to come to Illinois.

Comment by Ga. Dawg Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 11:21 am
==People aren’t lining up to be scapegoated by their neighbors==

Or work in these towns in general. If the state can barely subsidize education to begin with, how can they offer a premium for folks to work in these areas? With more young folks preferring urban areas, I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon.

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 11:21 am
You reap what you sow. Even in “nice” suburban districts there are shortages. Given the hostility and downright hatred shown to teachers, I don’t believe that any amount of money will bring back a healthy flow of Education graduates. Young folks read newspapers, are very much more aware of trends. Who’d sign up to be a teacher? What parent would approve of their child’s choice of Education as a major, knowing they’d probably have to subsidize their college grad financially for a long time? What’s the value of this?

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 11:39 am
=With more young folks preferring urban areas, I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon.=

That is nothing new, it has been a trend for about 125 years. Still, there are many vibrant small communities out there often within 20-30 minutes of a large population area that never had an issue hiring teachers until the last few years.

Here is a real set of numbers that brings the issue into clear focus-

2012-2013 Number of people taking Illinois licensure exam (all areas including admin) —51,415

2016-2017 Number f people taking Illinois licensure exam (all areas including admin) — 13,535

When I saw that data it blew my mind. Making reciprocity with other states easier will not solve the issue.

Pay will not solve the issue although we are going to pay more for sure now (market forces for the market economists out there) now that the incoming prospects have dwindled by something like 74%.

74% fewer people qualified to teach and every person that can retire doing so as fast as they can.

And this CAN be linked directly to Rauner because in 2014-2015 the number taking the licensure test was 45,013 the following year it was 22,925.

Governor’s own.

Rauner loves teachers, he just has a hard time showing it.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 11:43 am
==I’m sure out-of-state teachers are lining up to come to Illinois.==

Using 2016-17 salary schedules from neighboring districts Bettendorf CSD and Moline D40 revelas:

Base pay for Bettendorf CSD teachers:
BA 5 yrs = 38,626
MA 10 yrs = 52,322

Base pay for Moline D40:
BA 5 yrs = 47,781
MA 10 yrs = 63,077

I’m sure some teachers will cross the Mississippi for a 20% raise to work in Illinois.

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 11:50 am
=I’m sure some teachers will cross the Mississippi for a 20% raise to work in Illinois.=

I don’t have numbers, but I can tell you that a call to border districts (with Iowa in particular) will tell you that the teachers are going the other way (Illinois to Iowa). I have not talked to anyone in Moline but I can tell you from experience, there is a reason they pay more and it isn’t because it is easy for them to get staff.

My conversations have been with colleagues mainly medium to small districts along the border, not too far from my district.

Iowa schools are not in a financial crunch, their buildings in general are in good shape thanks to a statewide 1% school facility sales tax, the state itself is in sound fiscal shape thanks in part to a progressive income tax.

As much as this is anecdotal it is real and it is having an impact, not to mention the massively depleted Illinois job pool. BTW- Iowa universities, where a lot of Illinois kids are going, prepare kids for Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri certification.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 11:59 am
Right now, the cost of living is around 2.8%. A 3% limit isn’t even a raise, let alone a spike. I haven’t seen a story that accurately reflects what’s going on in districts right now. School administrators are saying that no teacher will ever get more than 3% because of the fear of a penalty. So, what they’ve actually done is put a 3% salary cap on every teacher. There’s other problems in higher ed. with shifting class loads. Problems with stipends for coaching and other activities that require more work. None of this is “spiking.” The bill was passed after school was out for the summer in most places and I guarantee you that in the fall, that 15,000 number could easily double or triple. Will and Elgie need to get educated on what that part of law actually does.

Comment by learnin Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 12:15 pm
There’s more to it than just pay/bennies. You couldn’t reasonably pay me enough to put up with the level of disregard for teachers that I see as a volunteer in the schools and through family that teach. It would take a cultural shift from admin and parents to allow me to do that job and tolerate a class of unfocused brats that don’t inherently respect the teacher and then hear from the parents how it is the teacher’s fault.

Comment by Shemp Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 12:20 pm
DuPage Saint, you can thank Reagan for the GPO and WEP. Most teachers who changed careers from the private sector did not realize the negative effect on their Social Security an Illinois pension such as TRS or SURS has.

Comment by Barrington Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 12:24 pm
All things considered, there is no good reason to become a teacher. The negatives are too long to list. So today/tomorrow’s parents will just need to be satisfied with whatever they get in schools or home school. After all, they’ve been saying anybody can do it.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 12:28 pm
Well said Anonymous….

Comment by Wondering Wendy Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 12:49 pm
“2012-2013 Number of people taking Illinois licensure exam (all areas including admin) —51,415

2016-2017 Number of people taking Illinois licensure exam (all areas including admin) — 13,535″

Word gets out in 2010/2011 that you will have below average pay while having to pay extra into a bad pension system while also not being qualified for social security and then all of a sudden there is ‘coincidental’ huge drop in education majors in five years??? I would have a hard time not believing that this is related to the implementation of Tier II in 2011. Throw in relatively low pay in many rural districts, in-state college tuition raising through the roof leading to a higher than normal exodus of Illinois students to out of state schools and you have a recipe for disaster.

Comment by benniefly2 Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 12:55 pm
A State worker retires at the ridiculous age of 55 and gets a ridiculous 3% raise every year for life, which is now the MAX a hard-working 25 year-old teacher starting a family and paying college debt can get? That’s *^&#.

Does this have to do with 79% of teachers in Illinois being female?

Comment by I Miss Bentohs Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 1:35 pm
Harrington: I thought Rostenkowski had a big hand in it too. I just love the hypocrisy of politicians not wanting teachers s and firemen “double dipping”

Comment by DuPage Saint Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 1:42 pm
All the pension and salary problems would go away if Illinois did not have to spend $3 Billion each year on non-citizens who reside in Illinois. Enforce e-verify and this drain on schools, hospitals and social services will be eliminated.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 1:47 pm
I’d like to add, in addition to the very well-documented and argued reasons stated by other posters above, that a fairly significant minority of us now ex-teachers are being shut out for having “too much education” and/or “too much experience.” Many of us took a career leave to raise our families, but when we came back we’re either shut out completely (I have a master’s degree, 10+ years experience, and am Tier I — 3 strikes, I’m out) or we get hired for 2-3 years and then let go because…well, tenure’s coming. The number of us out there is far larger than you’d imagine, and sure there’s a shortage, but these districts have exacerbated their own problems. I think “I Miss Bentohs” basically summed it up best in their last sentence at 1:35.

Oh, and Anonymous 1:47, go troll elsewhere.

Comment by Ex-teacher, Sadly Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 2:31 pm
@ex teacher- how broad is your job search or has it been? We don’t care about experience, we look for the best. Maybe you need to widen your search and be prepared to move if necessary?

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 2:50 pm
@JS Mill, thanks for your thoughtfulness. Where are you?

I’m searching suburban Cook and collars. Unfortunately, can’t move…mortgages, kids, aging parents, hubby’s job.

Comment by Ex-teacher, Sadly Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 3:02 pm