Don't Slap the Hands that Hold Our Future

With every syllable the halls of Lake Otis Elementary School seemed to close in around my nine year-old psyche. 

“Of all the kids in this school I expected better from you Andrew”, the teacher said sternly.

But this wasn’t just any teacher; it was Mr. Caputo, my idol. His disappointment was justified.

Earlier that morning I had made a poor decision at recess. Before either one of us could get dusty, we got carried away. The recess monitor had lifted us both two feet off the ground and to the principal’s office. The recess monitor was Mr. Caputo. His subsequent hallway lecture had lasting impacts.

Today, teachers like John and Jennifer Schmitz help spell the Lou Caputo’s of my generation. He teaches at Bartlett High while she teaches at Trailside Elementary, both are homegrown Anchorage School District graduates. He chose teaching to be a role model and to make a difference. She followed a family tree of educators recognizing teaching was a special calling.

Suffice to say, John and Jennifer are representative of the magnificent people we entrust with our children on a daily basis.

To put the importance of teachers in perspective, recent studies reveal the average parent spends fifteen minutes a day in conversation with their kids. Contrast that with the six hours a day your child spends in school. By the time students reach age 18, they’ve spent 13% of their life in the classroom.

But today, when a teacher’s role is more critical than ever, they’re being devalued at an alarming pace.

From politicians who recently threw teacher retirement security overboard, to critics that falsely claim teachers are under worked and overpaid (many teachers must take second jobs during the summer). We’re quickly losing site of just how important teachers are to the future of Alaska.

Today the average teacher graduates college with 85% more student loan debt than just a decade ago. Meanwhile, wages for educators haven’t kept pace with inflation. In 1993 Alaska ranked 2nd in the nation in teacher average salary. In 2003 Alaska’s teachers ranked 13th. At the same time the job of teaching our children is becoming more difficult.

Fewer parents participate in their child’s education while demanding teachers perform miracles. More students are coming to school unprepared to learn; more serious social problems are surfacing including threats of violence. A more diverse classroom with increasing demands such as increased numbers of special needs students as well as 95 different first languages.

And if all of these pressures aren’t enough, Governor Murkowski is about to add more.

Retirement security for the private sector is based on a three-legged stool theory: Personal savings, some employer-based 401k or pension and social security (which is a defined benefit plan). But unlike the private sector, public employees in Alaska aren’t eligible for social security, which means retirement security rests solely in their defined benefit plan.

However Governor Murkowski is preparing to sign a pension overhaul that will eliminate defined benefit plans and replace it with a defined contribution plan –read 401k. That means Teachers, Policemen, Firemen and every other public employee hired after next July will have retirement benefits based exclusively on their own investment savvy and the vagaries of the stock market.

You remember the vagaries of the stock market don’t you? In 2000, your PFD was $1,963; four years later it dropped to $919. In fact, market uncertainty is why 64% of Americans oppose the idea of private accounts for social security. In “Coming Up Short: The Challenge of 401(k) Plans”, authors Alicia Munnell and Annika Sunden research the retirement economics of defined contribution plans. The bottom line is that 401 (k) plans fail to provide retirement security by themselves.

But that shouldn’t be news to the governor. The legislatures own independent expert testified, “In general defined contributions is not a reliable vehicle for a secure retirement”. So did they look at viable and suggested alternatives like blended or hybrid options? No.

This legislation was nothing more than get even politics (the two Democrats who voted for the bill got $100 million in capital projects). But this time they got even with the wrong people. The people Alaska needs to grow more of in the next decade.

Please forgive them Mr. Caputo, they know not what they do.