Letters

NEA Today, Oct 2002

LOSING OUT ON SOCIAL SECURITY

I was delighted with the extensive coverage you gave to the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision ("Quite Simply, an Issue of Fairness," September 2002).

When I found out about these provisions nine years ago, I started researching and working to bring about their repeal. This grassroots effort has been tedious but essential. Our two senators and eight congress members signed on as co-sponsors to S. 1523 and H.R. 2638, legislation to repeal the GPO and WEP.

The GPO and WEP clearly discriminate against public employees by reducing or erasing their rightful Social Security benefits while nonpublic employees with private pensions receive their entire pensions and their full Social Security benefits.

As we all know, this is an election year, and that gives us some leverage. Public employees who have spent their lives working in public service should not have to worry about a reasonably secure retirement. The 107th Congress should take action now to address and resolve the hardships produced by these two provisions.

Edris B. Kelley

Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts

My wife and I worked in several states in education and other jobs before we moved to California, from which we retired as teachers in 1996. Before our retirement, we faithfully checked with Social Security for estimates about the benefits we would receive. Social Security indicated that my wife's monthly check would be almost $500.

You can imagine our shock when we completed our Social Security retirement applications and learned that my wife would receive only a little more than $100 each month because she was caught by the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision.

As a young worker, she worked part time in a food market. As a teacher, her salary was very low. As a mother, she stayed home with each child and worked as a teacher when she could.

It appears the GPO and WEP are gender-hostile and affect many women who made low salaries and then interrupted their work to raise children.

I hope Congress will repeal the GPO and WEP so that everyone affected by the provisions will receive what they should have received from Social Security. I personally am asking all teachers to write to their senators and representatives to urge Congress for a repeal.

Ronald Giberson

Lexington, Kentucky

I've been retired 16 years, and it is gratifying to see the NEA has noticed that teachers are being put down by Social Security. I still have a copy of my first Social Security check, which came to just one dollar because I was a teacher and my husband was a teacher.

I started working when I was 15-years-old to get through school, but the government considered the Social Security benefit amount others received a "windfall" for me! And my pension is quite small because I stayed home and raised my children.

By the way, we are taxed with regular taxes, just like everyone. One would think that NEA, with all of its power, could succeed in rectifying the dishonor the offset provision inflicts on the teaching force, especially to those of us who had to moonlight to support our families until teaching salaries got fairly decent. To the members of Congress I say, down with the extra taxation!

Mrs. Pete Vallosio

Peoria, Illinois

SURVIVING THE FIRST YEAR

I felt like I flashed back to 1980 when I read Missy Conner Stricklin's heartfelt diary of her first year of teaching (Cover story, September 2002).

When I was a student teacher, my mentor teacher made it very clear she thought I did not have the skills to become a good teacher. I could feel Missy's pain as I read about the way her principal and a consultant tried to blame her for a problem student. Shame on them and shame on my mentor teacher for not being supportive.

It is 22 years later and I am glad I ignored my mentor's advice to find another career, I still love teaching and try to always be a credit to our profession. Hang in there, Missy. I can tell you have what it takes to make a difference.

Barbara Brezel

South Windsor, Connecticut

I was extremely moved by the story about the first-year teacher who was switched from teaching math to special education. Missy Conner Stricklin has quite a bit of courage to work with students who originally would have been left behind. Instead of giving up, Ms. Stricklin decided to hang in there and deal with some of the challenges she faced as a special education teacher.

I was particularly fond of her ability to reach the autistic student whom she related to Rain Man. I am a special education teacher who works with autistic students. I also was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and was enrolled in special education for most of my elementary education and some of my time in middle school.

I chose to become a teacher to thank those people who had the courage and dignity to work with a child with a hidden disability such as mine. It took me about seven years to obtain my teaching credential, and I had to overcome many obstacles to land a teaching position. I chose to teach special education because I feel that many of these children are not going to function properly in society without the proper guidance.