Minnesota Teachers Are Angry!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that teaching has gotten more and more difficult in recent years. Teachers have been sounding the alarm about students causing disruption after disruption to the learning environment and parental support seriously lacking. I’ve seen a steady decline in student behavior in my small-town district over my 25 years.

BUT, that is not why teachers in Minnesota are so upset. I’ve talked many times in the past about the inequity that lies in our Minnesota teacher pension when it comes to Tier 1 and Tier 2 teachers, so I won’t get into the specifics now. If you want to know more about that, click here. This inequity is coming to a head as the oldest of these Tier 2 teachers reach the age where their Tier 1 counterparts were able to retire. This has caused a groundswell of grassroots support for change starting with a Facebook group called MN Educators for Pension Reform. The group has grown to almost 20,000 members that are driving discussion and, hopefully, change at the legislature.

Here are some of the concerns the group has:

• One of the biggest concerns of the group is the lack of transparency from TRA (Teachers’ Retirement Association), the organization that is responsible for managing the teachers’ retirement accounts. 
  • Meetings are held during school hours when teachers are unable to attend.
  • Meetings are not recorded for those unable to attend to view later.
  • Questions are avoided or even unanswered when asked. 
• Intergenerational Equity
  • Currently, teachers contribute 7.75% of their salary to their pension. That goes to 8% in 2025. Tier 1 teachers contributed between 4.5-6.5% of their salary during their working years.
  • Tier 2 teachers currently CANNOT retire without steep penalties, sorry “discounts”, to their pensions before age 65. Tier 1 teachers could retire with their full pensions when their years of service and age combined to equal 90. (If a tier 2 teacher would face upwards of a 55% penalty in their benefits if they did the same thing.)
• Tier 2 teachers had their benefit augmentation (interest accrual if leaving the profession) stripped with the 2018 legislative changes.

Add all of these things up, and this 20,000 strong group decided it was time to take a big step forward. The leaders, I’d call them that, contacted Ted Siedle, a public pension auditor, who has conducted numerous investigations into public pensions and their possible mismanagement. This experience doesn’t come cheap as it cost over $75,000 + fees for him to look into MN TRA. The leaders created a GoFundMe page that raised the total cost in about 19 days. I’m proud to say that I donated some money to this cause!

My contribution?

Recently, two of these leaders participated in a Podcast with John MacGregor on The Rich Dad Channel to discuss the outcomes they are hoping for when it comes to this audit. Ted Siedle joined along with the president of the Ohio Teachers’ Association, whom Ted recently did an audit for and found that they should have TWICE the amount of money in their account as they currently do.

The audit will start soon with Mr. Siedle doing a public records request to begin gathering the necessary paperwork to dig deep into the financials of TRA. What will this investigation yield? Only time will tell. But it will finally give Tier 2 teachers in Minnesota an idea as to whether TRA officials are being completely truthful with the answers that they have given when questioned about the fund. It will also clear up whether there has been mismanagement of fund assets and the unfunded actuarial liability over the years that Tier 2 teachers alone are saddled with paying. 

Over my 50 years, Minnesota has been known as an “education-friendly” state. Things changed in 1989 for the worse for career teachers in the state, and every other change since then has made it WORSE for Tier 2 teachers while Tier 1 teachers have been held harmless. The legislature has moved the goalposts and changed the rules for many of us in the middle of our careers. As Ted stated in the podcast, “Promises made. Promises kept.”

Agree or disagree with the actions being taken? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, KEEP STACKIN!!