Retired Teacher benefits bankrupting school districts?

Retired Teacher benefits bankrupting school districts?
The North County Times published a blatantly false article in the news section of the newspaper alleging that medical benefits for retired teachers are having adverse financial impacts on local districts. Retirement benefits and pensions may have contributed to San Diego City financial problems but have nothing to do with North County districts. The article can be found here:


I fear that there are some misinterpreted statistics in this article. I am a retired classroom teacher. I have worked in four different districts. I have relatives who retired form three other districts in the area as well. None of those districts GIVES medical benefits to retirees.

In VUSD you can pay the full and total cost that VUSD is charged by the insurance company for the privilege of joining the VUSD insurance pool. VUSD is out NO MONEY for retired teacher coverage. The cost to the retiree is an exorbitant MONTHLY fee of many hundreds even thousands of dollars but it is certainly NOT FREE!

When that retiree reaches sixty five, the retiree is cut loose. They are not allowed to remain in the pool no matter how much they offer to pay. At sixty five the VUSD classroom teacher retiree is left with no medical insurance and no options. However, I believe several of our former superintendents were given life time free medical coverage.

Second there is no way that the average classroom teacher salary in North County is $65000. 65K is the amount that the most experienced classroom teachers can get for a year or two at the END of their thirty year career just before retiring. Sometimes news reporters look at the average for certificated (credentialed) personnel and believe that it is the average for classroom teachers. It is not.

Certificated salaries include the salaries for school principals and psychologists and the truly obscene salaries of district office staff members--superintendents and their yes men. Averging all certificated salaries together including superintendent pay and calling that the average teacher pay is like averaging Bill Gates salary with microsoft computer techs salaries and calling that the average pay at Microsoft.

In addition most classroom teachers’ salaries are diminished even more by the amount they spend on buying supplies and supplementals for their students. I believe I saw a statistic by the NEA that indicated the average spending of the typical classroom teacher on her or his students approaches $1000 each and every year of his or her teaching career.