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Cannon Falls teacher urges board to support '60/30' unreduced pension bill for educators
Summary
An English teacher and Education Minnesota liaison asked the Cannon Falls School Board to support state legislation that would allow full teacher retirement at age 60 with 30 years of service and other changes to early-retirement penalties and COLA; she said the bill is funded by the state, not the district.
Cal Mandy Booth, an English teacher at Cannon Falls High School and the pension action liaison for Education Minnesota, urged the Cannon Falls School Board on Monday to support state legislation that would offer full retirement at age 60 with 30 years of Teachers Retirement Association service.
"The bill is 60 30, unreduced pension. In other words, age 60, 30 years of TRA service, full pension," Booth told the board. She said the proposal would also reduce penalties for early retirement and increase cost-of-living adjustments.
Booth said the measure would ease teacher retention and recruitment, arguing mid-career teachers are leaving the profession and younger teachers doubt they can stay until traditional retirement ages. "Mid career teachers are leaving teaching in droves. New teachers have doubts about surviving surviving for decades in this profession," she said.
Booth described three specific features of the measure as she presented them to the board: full retirement at age 60 with 30 years of TRA service; a reduction in early-retirement penalties from 7% to 5%; and an increase in the annual COLA from 1.2% to 1.5%.
She told the board the bill has bipartisan sponsorship and multiple companion bills in the House and Senate. Booth also said the bill, as written, directs the state to cover the funding gap and would not be part of the district's per-pupil funding formula. "The bill as written, the state is going to fill the funding gap. So this isn't part of the per pupil formula. This is not gonna be pushed onto the districts," she said.
Booth encouraged board members and administrators to participate in upcoming pension-action advocacy events and offered to provide materials and legislative contacts. "I can give you letters and everything to send and that sort of thing," she said, noting dates for pension action days in April and May.
Board members thanked Booth for bringing the item to the board during the public comment period; no formal board action on the request was recorded during the meeting.
Booth identified herself as an English teacher and as Education Minnesota's pension action liaison; the board's superintendent acknowledged her remarks and thanked her at the meeting.
