The Associated Press spoke to West Virginia school teachers who say they can't retire because of insufficient benefits in their 401(k)-style accounts.
"State officials estimate that the average such account contains less than $34,000," AP reports. "For the 1,100 account holders age 60 or older, only 23 have more than $100,000. The largest of those has $157,000."
Lawmakers had proposed merging such accounts into the larger, traditional pension program for teachers. But any such merger must be voluntary, after a mandatory plan was derailed by satisfied account holders who sued the state.
Lawmakers expect a bill from Gov. Joe Manchin, perhaps as early as this week, that would embrace a voluntary merger plan. Administration officials say they're still working on the tricky details.
"After devoting more than $1.4 billion toward pension debts over the last several years, Manchin and lawmakers want to avoid reversing gains made on the funding gap," AP reports. "The 'right' enrollees must also be willing to merge: the cost to the pension program will depend on the age and years of service of those who switch over. "
MetroNews also spoke to educators about their pension woes.
28 January 2008
Legislature 2008: Teacher Pensions
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1 comment:
From the story it seems that one teacher started teaching when she was 51 and now wants a full pension?
C'mon, sister. Grow up and live in the real world. You can't work somewhere for 13 years and retire with full benefits.
The other teacher has taught for 34 years and is in the new retirement plan?
Obviously she was in the old plan when she started and at some time moved her assets to the new plan.
Unless she was laid off and then re-hired, no one forced her to switch plans.
She says, “I don’t think that 20,000 of us should be thrown away because of mistakes of the past.”
They're your mistakes, lady. Now you have to live with them.
These are the people teaching our kids? No wonder we're last in everything.
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