[quote=CA renter][quote=bearishgurl]ltsdd, it is clear here that you have no experience in government.
My kids had SEVERAL elementary-school teachers who didn’t retire until their 36th-38th year. One teacher didn’t retire until he had taught 40 consecutive 4th grade classes in two district schools. He had their class pics posted on one his classroom walls in chronological order. Yes, showing him standing next to his class sporting every variation of sideburns, full beard, horn-rimmed glasses and Angel Flight pants :=0
A LOT of my kids’ classmates parents were in those photos!
He and his colleagues stayed on for their love of teaching and the kids. CA public school teachers can retire with 30 yrs svc with full pay but many don’t.
They LOVE getting up in the morning and going to school.
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Just have to clarify this point. Teachers do NOT get 100% of their pay upon retirement.
“The age factor is the percent of final compensation to which you are entitled for each year of service credit, determined by your age on the last day of the month in which your retirement is effective. It is set at 2% at age 60. The age factor is decreased if you retire before age 60 and increased to a maximum of 2.4% if you retire later than age 60. If you retire with at least 30 years of earned service credit, a 0.2% career factor will be added to your age factor, up to a maximum age factor of 2.4%.
Service credit is the accumulated period of time, in years and partial years, during which you receive creditable compensation for service as a member of the Defined Benefit program.
You may be able to purchase service credit or receive additional credit for unused sick leave.
CalSTRS estimates that the median benefit replaces 60% to 65% of a CalSTRS member’s pre-retirement income. The average monthly member-only benefit is $4,329.**”
So, even if a teacher works full-time, without any breaks in service, for 40 years, they would receive 96% of their pay. Of course, the number of teachers who actually work 40 full years is miniscule. Most of the “lifers” (usually women without families of their own) will work ~30 years, max. At 30 years, they make ~72% of their pay upon retirement. The vast majority of teachers never make it that long since the attrition rate is extremely high in the teaching profession.[/quote]
CAR, that is interesting that CalSTRS bases their retirement formula of age at time of retirement. Obviously, in CA, there is a HUGE incentive to work as a public school teacher until at least age 60. An avg of $4329 is much higher of a monthly annuity than I would have figured for a PS educator. I have at least a dozen relative-teachers and public school administrators in two “flyover” states who received 100% of their highest year’s pay as a retirement pay after 30+ years but their pay was obviously much lower than CA school districts pay. I think the the highest paid one is getting a retirement of a little more than half of that but he was a longtime PS Principal.
I should mention that unused sick leave can be substantial, amounting to thousands of hours for a “healthy” teacher where the district not have a “use or lose” policy. Perhaps this (unfair) policy is prohibited by CEA contracts.
I feel so fortunate that my kids were all educated by the highest-seniority, award-winning teachers. They had the good fortune to attend the best schools in the district at the time and that is where the high-seniority teachers flock to. They were ALL wonderful!
