Thousands of teachers converged on the State Capitol rotunda Thursday calling for legislation that will improve their pensions.
Teachers say they're alerting state leaders that Minnesota has chronically underfunded educator pensions and that the two-tiered system that over penalizes teachers needs to come to an end.
One of the attendees is Melissa Larson, Vice President of Education Minnesota Aspiring Educators, which is a union of over 3,000 future teachers in Minnesota. She says it's an important piece in getting more teachers in the pipeline with many districts facing a shortage of educators.
"I really see it as a recruitment tool," says Larson. "A lot of aspiring educators are really having to focus on being their own financial planner and looking at retirement even before we start getting a job. So I really see it as a recruitment tool and making sure that student teachers who graduate in Minnesota stay in Minnesota."
Currently, teachers in Minnesota who began teaching after July, 1989, have to continue until age 65 which the union says is too long, and holds teachers hostage.
"My own professor is a full-time teacher and she teaches at UMD and she's actually thinking about stopping teaching and then working somewhere else while she waits for her pension," Larson explains. 'Because she feels that she physically can't continue teaching. And so I think that's really worrying."
Joseph Wollersheim teaches 11th and 12th grade social studies at Eastview in Apple Valley and says he while he's only in his tenth year at Eastview, he is surrounded by older colleagues who feel trapped due to their pensions.
"We have teachers in their late fifties with a pension system that isn't working for them," says Wollersheim. "There are people who are great teachers and some of them know they're not as great as they want to be anymore. But because of the way our system is structured right now, they're kind of handcuffed into their jobs. It would be irresponsible of them and unintelligent of them to leave before certain points. So they're handcuffed in and at the same time, there's not a lot of younger teachers. A lot of the younger teachers are doubting themselves."
Wollersheim says he loves teaching and that it's a great job being able to work with kids. But he considered jumping out of the profession a couple of years ago.
"As I go through the stresses of being a teacher, you ask yourself, can I do this another 30 years? Can I do this another 35 years? Which is a different question of, am I a third of the way through my career or am I less than a quarter of the way through my career? So I think bringing attention to the issue at the legislature is important because there's kind of two different problems we have in teaching right now. There's people stuck and for the sake of the kids, people who are stuck should have the flexibility to leave. And we have a shortage of teachers."