The state of New Jersey is having an anti-property tax frenzy in which politicians are desperately looking for ways to cut property taxes, which are probably the highest in the entire nation. Some cost-cutting is necessary statewide, both locally and in the state government, which itself has grown out of control in recent decades.

Some of the proposals which have been suggested by a state committee involves what I consider to be cheating teachers out of some of our retirement benefits, such as making us co-pay for our medical coverage, capping terminal leave pay, changing the denominator for pensions from 55 to 60, extending the earliest retirement age from 55 to 62, and capping pensionable charities at $97,000 (which would really impact on administrators).

It has been pretty much shown over and over again that teachers work as many hours in a year as private sector people (not including history or English teachers who generally work many more hours), but that those hours are compressed into 40 weeks which, along with the nature of the job, causes teaching to be an incredibly stressful job overall. In fact, I saw one survey in which teaching is the second most stressful job in the country, after air traffic controllers.

Teachers also make considerably less money than our counterparts in the private sector. A private sector employee with a masters degree in mathematics and 30 years’ experience, both of which describe me, would be earning at least double what I am making. That does not bother me much because I entered teaching cognizant of my lower earning potential. But for 30+ years my retirement benefits have always been a small light at the end of the tunnel financially for me and for most teachers. To now cheat me out of those benefits would be both immoral and unjust. Not that legislators or the majority of the public care about being fair to teachers, since for many people self-interest is their only concern no matter how selfish those interests might be. Plus America is to some extent an anti-education country in which intellectuals are looked down upon rather than held in any particular esteem.

Anyway, the NJEA has organized a rally next Monday in Trenton so, as vice-president of my district’s teacher’s association, I am attending it along with about 70 other district teachers. It will be a long, tiring, probably boring day, but it has to be done. Whether it does any good or not remains to be seen.