Robert McVay became a teacher in Franklin primarily because he loved the job.
He remembers his third-grade teacher repeatedly telling him that he was intelligent and what that meant for him as a needy kid with eight siblings. He hoped he could make the same difference for someone else.
But he also believed that being a public school teacher meant being guaranteed certain protections.
“I believed and then I felt like I could retire with a pension that would provide real retirement security,” McVay said. “But everything stopped when I retired in 1998.”
McVay was unlucky to retire before 2001. That’s when the Pennsylvania Legislature passed a bill increasing pensions for public school teachers, but only for those who retire after the law goes into effect. Since then, for retired teachers like McVay, who stopped working before 2001, the cost of living has not increased – a fairly common occurrence – in more than 20 years.
That’s why McVay joined members of the Pennsylvania State Educators Association and other advocacy groups on Wednesday in asking the Senate to pass a bill that would provide a cost-of-living raise to teachers who retired before 2001.
All you need is a bill like this House Bill 1416it passed the House last November with 38 Republicans joining every Democrat, but it has since sat in the Republican-controlled Senate.
According to the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees, the average pension for a public school employee who retired before the raises took effect is $18,400. Most of these retirees will also qualify for Social Security. For McVay, that meant moving to a trailer park in Florida and struggling to afford necessities like groceries.
“These individuals are the backbone of our community because they have dedicated their lives to educating our children,” said Rep. Steven Malagari (D-Montgomery), sponsor of this HB 1416. “For too long, they have been asked to retire and were promised a retirement without a safety net.”
Malagari said the issue is personal for him. His mother was an elementary school teacher.
However, with the legislative session ending in six weeks and only eight “days of session” scheduled before that, it seems unlikely that his bill will pass.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (D-Indiana) said in a statement to the Capital-Star: “I have real empathy for those who retired before 2001. Of course, we must be careful about the fragile nature of our pension funds. The question for advocates remains how do we pay for it without increasing the burden on property taxpayers across the commonwealth.”
The the same concerns were expressed by House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) when the bill passed the House. Some analysis by the Independent Tax Office found that the unfunded liabilities of both the State Employees Retirement System and the Public School Employees Retirement System would collectively escalate by more than $1 billion.
A spokesman for Sen. Cris Dush (R-Jefferson), chairman of the Senate government committee to which the bill was referred, did not respond to questions about whether he would hold a vote before the end of the session.
Other lawmakers spoke alongside McVay and Malagari.
Sen. Katie Muth (D-Montgomery) noted that legislators automatically receive cost-of-living increases on top of their salaries every year. The legislature voted to suspend them in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but voted to resume them shortly thereafter.
Muth introduced her own bills in the Senate that would escalate pensions for retirees who left public school jobs before 2001, but they did not transfer.
“My dream of being a teacher turned into a nightmare of poverty because of the Legislature’s inaction,” McVay said. “It’s a shame. Just to be clear, I’m not looking for a handout. I am simply asking the Legislature to recognize what we are going through, take responsibility, and pass a long overdue cost of living correction.
Forty House members joined or showed up for a rally in the Capitol rotunda on Wednesday. Seven senators also showed up, including two Republicans, Sens. Camera Bartolotta (R-Washington) and Senator Frank Farry (R-Bucks).
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