Latest news with #DeniseSpecht
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Minnesota Legislature approves pension changes for teachers
May 20—ROCHESTER — The Minnesota Legislature has passed legislation that will allow Minnesota teachers to retire a little earlier, if they so choose. While it still needs the signature of Gov. Tim Walz, the bill, among other things, includes reform for teacher pensions, lowering the age at which educators can expect to begin their retirement. "This is a big victory for Minnesota teachers," said Denise Specht, president of the statewide teachers union Education Minnesota. "What we're doing with this bill is an opportunity to retire at the age of 60 with 30 years of experience." According to the Teachers Retirement Association, educators become eligible to retire as early as age 55. However, the size of their pension would be reduced by a percentage for every year between the time of their early retirement and the normal retirement age of 65. The TRA, however, stipulated that the reduction to their pension would be smaller if they were at least 62 years old with 30 years of service. With the passage of Monday's legislation, teachers are now able to take advantage of that same benefit two years earlier at the age of 60. Although there's still a reduction in the pension for retiring early, the penalty for doing so has also been reduced from 6% to 5% for those who qualify with their age and years of experience. Teachers and their school districts contribute to teacher pensions. As part of the new legislation, $40 million was also dedicated to the Minnesota Teacher Retirement Association, which is the organization that manages teachers' pension accounts. Teachers across the state have been advocating for pension reform for years. In 2023, the Legislature lowered the normal retirement age from 66 to 65. Teachers hired before July 1, 1989, have a career "Rule of 90," which allowed teachers to retire once their age and their years of teaching experience equaled that number. There has been an effort to amend legislation surrounding teachers' pensions in recent years, since teachers who began teaching after the change to the rule in 1989 are now reaching retirement age. Rochester Education Association President Vince Wagner said that although the new legislation is progressing in the right direction, there are teachers who would like to see even more reform to the system. "By no means are we done talking about pensions," Wagner said. "It's a step forward." Monday's legislation is the end result of teachers advocating for pension reform for years. "This victory could not have happened without the tens of thousands of educators who came together in union to write, call and rally for a retirement benefit that's fair, flexible and sufficient," Specht said in a statement. "This is what educators can accomplish when we work together." In addition to teachers' pensions, the bill also impacts public safety personnel. According to a press release from the Minnesota House of Representatives, personnel represented by the Public Employees Retirement Association police and fire, there will be "a three-year cost-of-living adjustment delay once they retire. A year would be taken off in the bill. They would also get a one-time 3% cost-of-living increase in 2026 and 1% annually thereafter. These changes come with a $17.7 million cost in each fiscal year. "At a cost of $2.3 million per year, every state patrol retiree would get a 1.25% annual cost-of-living increase — up from 1%," the release said.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Record level of eighth graders lack basic reading skills, national assessment shows
A student exits a school bus as they arrive to Creative Arts Secondary School on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Saint Paul, Minn. (Ellen Schmidt/Minnesota Reformer) The share of Minnesota eighth graders failing to meet basic reading achievement standards edged up to the highest level on record in 2024, according to national benchmark test results released this week. The data, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, shows that 29% of Minnesota eighth grade students failed to demonstrate a minimum level of reading ability. While the change from 2022 to 2024 is not considered statistically significant, a decade ago just 18% of eighth graders were performing as poorly. Conversely, the share of Minnesota eighth graders rated 'proficient' at reading fell to 28%, the lowest level on record. That number has fallen by 12 percentage points since 2015. Eighth graders without a basic level of reading ability have trouble understanding the meaning of key words; are unable to make simple inferences about a text; and struggle to understand basic elements like an order of events, a character's motivation or the main idea of a passage. As in many states, white children performed better than Black or Hispanic children, girls performed better than boys, and scores in suburban districts were higher than those in urban or rural ones. Education Minnesota, the state teacher's union, noted that on average Minnesota students performed better than their peers nationally. 'It's good to see that Minnesota students continued to score higher in math and reading than the national averages and stayed about even with students who took the tests two years ago,' said Denise Specht, president of the union. 'However, Minnesota needs to continue investing in the educator workforce to make real progress toward returning academic achievement to pre-pandemic levels.' Minnesota's recent struggles mirror the country's. Nationally, 34% of eighth graders are not meeting basic reading standards, also a record high. 'NAEP has reported declines in reading achievement consistently since 2019,' said Daniel McGrath of the National Center for Education Statistics, in a statement. 'The continued declines since the pandemic suggest we're facing complex challenges that cannot be fully explained by the impact of COVID-19.' On math the national numbers are even more dire, with 41% of middle school students failing to meet benchmarks. In Minnesota the share, which fell slightly in the past year, is now 29%. The NAEP tests, which are designed to allow comparisons between states, are different than Minnesota's own standardized assessments, which also show stagnating proficiency in reading and math. While pandemic learning loss is one factor in the declining scores, experts are now looking to factors like chronic absenteeism and rising screen time as possible drivers of the ongoing stagnation. One relatively bright spot in the national data is Louisiana, which stands alone as the only state to post a significant increase in fourth grade reading scores since 2019. The state's recent embrace of the science of reading curriculum, which emphasizes traditional phonics-based reading instruction, may be playing a role there. Minnesota also recently adopted that curriculum, although the rollout is only just beginning. Lagging student achievement has bedeviled the administration of Gov. Tim Walz, himself a former public school teacher. Despite record investments in public education, achievement in Minnesota has fallen more sharply than nationwide. Schools continue to face budget shortfalls, in part due to declining enrollment. Many charter schools, once pitched as an alternative to failing public schools, are performing even worse than their traditional counterparts.
