How to Break Public Schools and Teachers

   A first year teacher in Oklahoma may now earn about $36,000 in annual salary, still not enough to pay the bills but enough to eat most days. Each year of service that passes, the teacher receives about $400 more. If the teacher received $36,600 during her first year, she will receive about $37,000 during the second year. After 25 years of service, the teacher may receive $50,444 in annual salary, and decide to retire. After all, the teacher paid into the Oklahoma Teacher Retirement System (OTRS) for 25 years, and needs a well-deserved rest. Any teacher's retirement pension is calculated on an average of the three highest years in salary. For instance, the teacher who puts in 25 years before retiring may have earned $48,777, $48,995, and $50,444 during their last 3 years of employment. The average ($49,405) is the figure used to calculate the teacher's retirement benefit. It is generally a percentage of that figure. Most teachers pay far more into the OTRS than they get back in benefits.Those that retire after 30 or 40 years service pay more into the OTRS than they will ever recoup in benefits. They usually expire before getting their investment back.
   After 5 years of employment as a teacher, one becomes vested and may retire with full benefits. In the above example, the teacher earned $37,469, $37,904, and $38,338 to average $37,904 for calculation purposes. It's not much retirement, but the teacher only paid into OTRS for five years.
   Anyone see the OETA program on June 12 about how Kentucky legislators almost broke the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System? It seems that Kentucky lawmakers borrowed from the KTRS in order to balance its state budget. They borrowed money that teachers had paid into the system for retirement purposes (highly unethical if not illegal).
   Now comes the hard pill for Oklahoma teachers to swallow: Everyone has seen the recruiting brochures which tout EPIC teachers receive anywhere from $60,000 to more than $100,000 in annual salary. EPIC employees may belong to the OTRS, so upon retirement - their benefit package is calculated using the average of last three years employment. That figure could be up to $100,000, but most if not all traditional public school employees have paid into OTRS for more than 30 to 40 years before reaching that average. A factual scenario is that a first-year teacher is hired by EPIC at $100,000, works for the next 5 years and becomes vested, retires at the age of 27, and goes back to work for a traditional public school at a salary of $40,000. The teacher is now drawing retirement from funds never paid into OTRS! This factual scenario may break the OTRS within 5 years! (The time required to become vested.) Thank you, EPIC..
   ...and consider this fun fact: One or two EPIC employees earn well over $1 million... It is not known if they too belong to OTRS, but will nonetheless help break the system.