SC senators back away from hiring back retired teachers, police officers
The state of South Carolina could open itself up to a lawsuit if only some retired educators and police officers can be rehired without facing the state's $10,000 cap on retiree earnings, senators warned their colleagues Wednesday.
That concern caused the Senate's powerful Finance Committee to send the proposal — filed by state Sen. Mike Fanning, D-Fairfield, to address the state's teacher shortage — back to a subcommittee for more work.
That move, by a 10-9 vote, could mean the bill never will make it to the Senate floor for a vote this year. That could set the stage for a mass retirement of thousands of teachers this summer.
Fanning filed his proposal in December, responding to concerns from school districts of an impending mass exodus of teachers because of the end of a popular state retirement program — the Teacher and Employee Retention Incentive, or TERI. That program ends June 30, and 6,630 public-sector employees could leave their jobs for retirement — about half of them school employees.
Those employees could stay in their jobs. But few are expected to because of a state law that says working retirees cannot collect their retirement benefits if they are paid more than $10,000 for their jobs.
Without Fanning's legislation, educators worry many of the state's school districts, particularly those in rural areas, will be unable to put a teacher in every classroom next school year, given the state's ongoing teacher shortage.
Kathy Maness, head of the Palmetto State Teachers Association, called Wednesday's Senate committee debate "disappointing."
"We are in a teacher shortage crisis," she said, pointing to the roughly 1,684 students who graduated from S.C. colleges last year with a teaching degree and the 6,500 S.C. teachers who left the classroom during the same year.
But senators noted the bill leaves out other retired state workers. Their employers might feel those vacancies are just as critical to fill.
"It opens the door," said state Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland. "I am a big fan of teachers and principals ... (but) that's just making other state employees, who feel that they're critical also, even more irritated."
This story was originally published March 28, 2018 at 1:09 PM with the headline "SC senators back away from hiring back retired teachers, police officers."