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Background
Wisconsin's 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. 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.
Additional changes, however, are needed to modify how the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) treats Education Support Professionals (ESP). Education Support Professionals are treated differently by the WRS in terms of how they qualify for creditable service toward retirement.
Legislative History
Under current state law, to become covered under the WRS, an individual must work for a covered employer for at least one-third of the time that is considered to be full-time employment. For all WRS participants including ESP with the exception of public school teachers, librarians, and administrators, the Department of Employee Trust Funds (DETF) defines full-time employment as 1,904 hours per year and one-third employment to be 600 hours per year.
In contrast, for public school teachers, librarians, and administrators, DETF defines full-time employment as 1,320 hours per year and one-third employment as 440 hours per year.
This difference in calculating creditable service toward retirement has the effect of requiring ESP to work longer than other public education employees 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:
. Requiring that Education Support Professionals and teachers, librarians, and administrators be treated the same in terms of qualifying for WRS coverage, with full-time employment for Education Support Professionals set at 1,320 hours per year.
. Provide that the final average earnings of an Education Support Professional employee are increased by 25% for the purpose of determining the initial amount of WRS retirement annuity.
. Reduce the amount that is required for the purpose of calculating what constitutes a year of creditable service from 0.75 to 0.65 of a year of creditable service. The result will be that ESP participants in WRS will not have to work as many hours in a year in order to qualify.
Talking Points
. WEAC represents the public policy, labor and professional interests of its more than 95,000 members and believes they should all be treated equally under the WRS. WEAC's membership includes more than 15,000 Education Support Professionals who perform a wide variety of jobs in public schools every day.
. ESP play an important role in providing every kid with a great school. ESP work under a different calculation of creditable service toward retirement. This has the effect of requiring ESP to work longer than other public education employees before reaching eligibility for WRS contributions.
. Education Support Professionals are the secretaries, paraeducators, bus drivers, custodians, and cooks employed in public K-12 schools and technical colleges. If schools are to maintain the highest quality ESP, creditable time in service for ESP should be calculated the same as all other education professionals. This improvement will provide an incentive for ESP to stay in public schools for their entire careers maintaining overall quality and experience among staff.
. Education Support Professionals' job responsibilities include: transporting students to and from schools, looking after students safety and well-being during the school day, ensuring that students are ready to learn in classrooms that work, maintaining records, maintaining physical plant and grounds, and caring for computer systems. Many make their principal contribution to students' education by helping to keep schools running. ESP time spent in public schools should be given the same level of respect as all other professionals in public schools.
Additional Information
Contact Deb Sybell, WEAC Legislative Program Coordinator, at 800-362-8034 ext. 227 or by e-mail at sybelld@weac.org with any reactions, comments or questions.
Posted May 4, 2006