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Background
Wisconsin's public schools are great when they maintain the highest
quality staff. An important part of maintaining quality staff is to
offer them a retirement benefit that is an incentive to spend an entire
career in public service. The improvements for Wisconsin's schools and
education professions have not happened by accident or chance. They
happened because generations of WEAC members made them happen.
A recent example of an improvement for education professionals was approval of a retirement benefit increase for public employees in Wisconsin. WEAC was the driving force behind legislative approval of the single largest retirement system benefit increase in state history. The law, which was the bipartisan product of years of negotiations and cooperation between labor and governmental groups, provides a 10% increase in pensions for past service and makes various other improvements in the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS).
Additional changes, however, are needed to modify how the WRS treats Education Support Professionals (ESP). This group of education professionals is treated differently by the WRS in terms of how they qualify for creditable service toward retirement.
Legislative history
Under current law, to become covered under the WRS, an individual must
work for a covered employer at least one-third of what is considered
to be full-time employment. For all WRS participants, other than teachers,
librarians, and administrators, the Department of Employee Trust Funds
(DETF) defines full-time employment to be 1,904 hours per year and one-third
employment to be 600 hours per year. In contrast, for teachers, librarians,
and administrators, DETF defines full-time employment to be 1,320 hours
per year and one-third employment to be 440 hours per year. This difference
in calculating creditable service toward retirement has the effect of
requiring ESP to work longer than other educational staff to become
eligible for contributions to be made to the WRS.
WEAC position
WEAC supports passage of legislation to improve the way retirement benefits
are provided to ESP by making the following changes:
Talking points
Education Support Professionals transport students to and from schools,
and look after their safety and well-being while they are in school.
They play critical roles in ensuring that students are ready to learn
in classrooms that work. Many make their principal contribution to students'
education by helping to keep schools running. Education support professionals
create and maintain records, maintain physical plant and grounds, and
care for computer systems. Their time spent in public service should
be given the same level of respect as all other professionals in public
service.
Additional information
Contact Bob Burke at WEAC at 800-362- 8034 ext. 254 or by e-mail at
burkeb@weac.org with any reactions,
comments or questions.