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ESP provision removed from state budget bill In late April, the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee removed the ESP retirement provision from the state budget bill, citing a Legislative Fiscal Bureau paper that identified it as a non-fiscal policy item. Senator Fred Risser has plans, however, to re-introduce the item as separate legislation. |
Education Support Professionals should be treated the same as all public school employees in terms of qualifying for coverage for state retirement benefits, two WEAC ESP members told the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee at a hearing Thursday (April 12, 2007) in Green Bay.
"Wisconsin public schools thrive when they retain great staff. An important part of retaining great staff is to offer them a retirement benefit that is an incentive to spend an entire career in public service," Kay Hansen of Denmark said in supporting Governor Doyle's 2007-09 state budget provision that improves ESP retirement provisions.
Under the current state law, Hansen said in prepared remarks, ESP must work 1,904 hours a year to be considered full-time employees and 600 hours a year just to be eligible for WRS benefits.
 Kay Hansen |
In contrast, for public school teachers, librarians, and administrators, the Department of Employee Trust Funds defines full-time employment as 1,320 hours per year and eligibility at 440 hours per year.
"This difference in calculating creditable service toward retirement requires ESP to work longer than other public education employees and also puts greater limits on us as to who is eligible to receive this benefit. This law needs to change," Hansen said.
She said that at times, the ESP "are the best thing that happens to these kids during the school day."
"The helping hand, that smile or kind word from the food service worker, the bus driver, the classroom paraeducator, the janitor, the secretary makes a difference in their lives. ESP do their jobs in our public schools because we care; we care about what we do, we care about the kids, and we believe in our kids and we want to see them succeed," Hansen said.
"ESP work side-by-side with our teachers every day. We support and respect our teaching staff, and they support and respect us. When asking for this change in our state law ESP are only asking to receive the same benefits, the same respect that is given to the rest our public school employees in Wisconsin."
 Mary Koepsel |
Mary Koepsel, an ESP with the Appleton Area School District, said she has worked as an educator for 21 years but the WRS only credits her for approximately 15 years.
"I take offense to that.," she said.
"ESP provide quality education to our schoolchildren and are one of the reasons we have great schools. Wisconsin ESP deserve to receive the same level of respect as other professionals in public service. We would like to be treated equally under the WRS," Koepsel said.
"This budget provision would provide an incentive for ESP to stay in public service for their entire careers, making sure every school has great support staff as well as teachers."
 David Harswick |
In other testimony, Green Bay Education Association President David Harswick said teachers in Green Bay have lost 14% of their purchasing power since 1994, the year the Qualified Economic Offer, or QEO, was arbitrarily imposed upon them.
"As they work hard every day to help students reach their dreams, they are watching their own dreams fade away," he said in urging the Joint Finance Committee to support the governor's proposal to repeal the QEO law.
Since the QEO was imposed in 1993, the average Wisconsin teacher’s salary has dropped from 17th place in the U.S. to 25th in 2004-05, Harswick said.
In the Great Lakes Region – which includes Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin – Wisconsin’s average and beginning teacher salaries were dead last, he added. In 2003-04 dollars, a beginning Wisconsin teacher made $6,000 less than his/her counterpart in Minnesota and $10,000 less than his/her counterpart in Michigan.
"If the QEO law is continued, we will see educators drift to other professions where the demands and pressures are less, and the financial rewards are greater," he said.
Governor's budget proposal improves ESP retirement provision
2007-09 state budget resource page
Posted April 12, 2007