ASTA Executive Director Dr. Michele Ballentine-Linch op-ed on the rising cost of health care for Arkansas teachers as featured on the Times Record website:
Education reforms have been the subject of many of this year's state headlines. Everything from the implementation of Common Core State Standards to improving Arkansas's place in national rankings have been hot topics. While policymakers champion new and innovative ideas to improve education in the state, it's critical that we strike a delicate balance between commonsense reform, spending education dollars wisely, and quality of life for our hardworking educators.
Nowhere is this balance more needed than in the current state of health-care benefits for Arkansas's hardworking teachers. According to a recently released survey of teachers by the Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA), our state's educators and school employees are suffering greatly under the current cost of health care. Some teachers are seeing their take-home pay slashed in half or more by the cost of their insurance premiums.
Survey results provide an authentic look at the cost of being an educator in the state. A majority of respondents report the percentage deducted from their take-home pay for health-care premiums is an average of 20-40 percent, with a high of 85 percent in some small districts.
As a result, teachers and other education employees have to make difficult budget decisions. Arkansas’s two-parent educator families and single parent homes appear to be taking some of the biggest hits as many respondents reported cases of children having to be dropped from insurance plans. Currently, the state pays an average of $390 per state employee in health-care contributions. For educational employee, that number drops to $131 a year. Due to legislative caveat, teachers are not classified as “full” state employees. Despite rising costs, there has been no increase in health benefit contributions from the state since 2004 for public school employees. The result is an inequity in funding that threatens the very foundation of our already struggling education system.
The issue of rising health-care costs in Arkansas is particularly timely as premiums are slated to rise 20 percent in 2013. According to a legislative panel facilitated by the Arkansas Public Resource Center (APSRC) on Oct. 30, policymakers indicated that the state would reach a point where the "cost of health-care premiums would impact our ability to hire and retain quality teachers." Based on the ASTA survey, 65 percent of educator respondents agreed that the state has already reached this point.
According to survey commentary, this issue is greatly affecting teacher quality in many districts. "Our district doesn't contribute anything. This is one reason our secondary schools can't retain qualified teachers, especially those with math and science degrees," remarked one educator. "These teachers find employment in the private sector or other districts who offer better salaries and benefits."
In order to retain and attract quality education employees, this issue needs to be addressed at the state level as soon as possible. While ASTA members embrace reform for the sake of our students, we must also focus on incentivizing educators with reasonable salary and benefits packages. Our respected professionals deserve innovative pay structures that provide quality benefits and rewards for their success.
While other teacher organizations have been asleep at the wheel, ASTA is willing to work with policymakers to ensure a system that doesn't simply add to the budget, but creates a structure of efficiency and merit. We should be rewarding teachers for their performance, teaching in high-need schools, or staffing critically needed positions. Recognizing budget realities, we must work collaboratively to create a system for our educators that balance the need for reform with attracting the next generation's workforce.
Teachers and school employees play a critical role in the economic development and sustainability of this state. Investing in the health and well-being of our teachers and other school employees, in a fair and equitable manner, will be of great benefit to the state of Arkansas. The fact is, study after study proves that the key to student success is having an effective teacher in the classroom. Our goal as a state should be to provide a quality teacher for every student. In all reality, we must provide competitive compensation to attract high-quality individuals to the teaching profession. Our success as state depends on it.
 |
Print
Permalink
