Teachers: Need aid on health insurance
Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/222330/
Teacher health-insurance costs continue to rise and the Legislature should step up again and help out, a teachers union official told lawmakers Wednesday.
Rich Nagel, executive director of the Arkansas Education Association, told a legislative subcommittee that teachers considering whether to work in Arkansas or another state or to get out of the profession are a factor regarding benefits.
“Our salaries may be higher, but [insurance ] premiums play into the decision,” Nagel said.
Rep. Bill Abernathy, DMena, chairman of the Joint Education Evaluation Oversight Subcommittee, agreed that the Legislature should do something. He said it would take another $ 80 million a year to reduce premiums paid by public school teachers to the level of those paid by state employees.
“We do have a serious problem here,” Abernathy said.
According to numbers presented by Nagel to the subcommittee, the teachers’ insurance premiums have increased by almost 40 percent since the 2004-2005 school year.
The employee share was reduced in 2005 when the Legislature contributed about $ 35 million a year. But premiums have increased since then.
In the current school year (2007-2008 ), the employee cost per month is $ 152. That will rise to $ 180 for the 2008-2009 school year, according to Nagel’s numbers.
For plans covering the teacher and children, the employee cost per month is $ 391 but will go up to $ 434 per month next school year.
Those figures are based on school districts contributing the minimum share required by the state, which is $ 131 a month per teacher. About 80 of the 245 school districts contributed more than the minimum, Nagel said.
About 38, 000 school employees, including teachers and other employees, are covered by the school insurance plan, Nagel said.
After increases the past few years, the state’s average teacher salary is now 32 nd national, Nagel said.
He said the teachers association doesn’t have a specific amount for insurance subsidies to propose for the Legislature to add in the 2009 legislative session.
“It’s going to be high on our list,” he said.
He said the association wants to do other things to encourage teacher retention, such as developing incentives for teachers to receive master’s degrees.
During the 2007 session, the association pushed for more funding for insurance, but that was rejected by Gov. Mike Beebe and the Legislature. Some lawmakers complained that the state Supreme Court didn’t give them “credit” for the 2005 increase for insurance and was more concerned with overall salaries.
While pushing for that insurance benefit increase, the teachers association told lawmakers that the teacher share of premiums was expected to increase by $ 72 a month.
But numbers Nagel passed out Wednesday showed that teacher shares of individual plans were increased by $ 8 a month and employee with children plans by $ 24 a month from 2006-2007 to 2007-2008.
“That [$ 72 a month ] was an early estimate,” Nagel said in an interview afterward.
He said subsequent analysis of claims filed along with some additional state money helped reduce the premiums.
But he said that numbers provided the subcommittee for 2008-2009 “are definitive” and provided by the state Employee Benefits Division.
The Arkansas Education Association was among four education lobbies that presented reports in response to the subcommittee asking what the state needs to do to continue to provide an adequate and equitable education as required by a 2002 state Supreme Court ruling.
The Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators presented a 15-page, detailed set of recommendations.
The administrators’ group executive director, Tom Kimbrell, told the committee that former state Rep. Jodie Mahony, D-El Dorado, called it a “Christmas wish book” but that the proposals concerned things the group believes to be important.
Mahony, now a staff member for the House focusing on education matters, later confirmed the quote, adding that the items were all things the administrators have previously requested.
The recommendations included providing funding for about three more staff members per 500 students, including secretaries.
Also, Kimbrell said more money is needed for substitutes, overall operations and maintenance, transportation, administration, and other things.
Two other groups asking for more money for public schools were the Arkansas School Boards Association and the Arkansas Rural Education Association.