New Research: Pensions Pensions Help Retain 22,000 Teachers, Save $273 Million Nationally

[proud2BlibKansan]

OCTOBER 31, 2011, Washington, D.C. — A new study analyzing the effectiveness of defined benefit (DB) pensions on teacher retention and productivity finds that pensions play a critical role in recruiting and retaining highly productive teachers. This increases each school’s level of effectiveness, thereby benefiting students. Additionally, DB pensions save school districts money by reducing expensive teacher turnover costs.

More specifically, the new study, Three Rs of Teacher Pension Plans: Recruitment, Retention, and Retirement, finds that:

Teacher effectiveness increases with experience. Education policy literature finds that teacher productivity increases sharply within the first few years of teaching. Thus, the more retention that among mid- career teachers, the more that the average teacher productivity within a school will increase.

The cost of teacher turnover is quite high, both in terms of financial cost and loss of productivity to the school district. Additionally, public school teachers turn over less than private school teachers, largely due to their compensation, including pension benefits.

DB pension plans help to recruit high quality teachers, and to retain highly productive teachers longer, as compared with defined contribution (DC) individual retirement accounts.

more . . . http://www.nirsonline.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=669

[seacaves]

1. Many already know this but are willing to discard the

truth for short term political gains like many Repup governors are doing.


Like Wisconsin Walker, who made dramatic cuts in Education.