1. Several people suggested teachers should be "thinking of the kids" instead of themselves. They don't seem to realize that's what teachers DO; they think of the kids. A certain segment of people in town think programs and teaching can happen effectively "without" teachers. Programs and teaching doesn't happen in a public school without certified teachers.
2. One man suggested the town look into teacher "pensions" for some kind of give-back. If one checks p. 32 in the yellow booklet of the Lebanon Annual Report for 08-09 they will see that the Town doesn't put anything into teacher retirement plans. Teachers money is not "matched" and many teachers have lost their "nest egg" in the recession too.
3. Most people don't realize that the State of CT dipped into teacher pension funds and reallocated them to use a few years ago during "lean times" and had to be challenged (along with other CT civil servants like police) to get that issue addressed, over time.
4. Most people don't realize teachers no longer buy into Social Security as they used to.
5. Many older teachers are facing continual reductions to whatever S.S. benefits they might have accrued before 2 laws came into effect that penalize teachers. So, teachers who had worked during the summer or part-time to make ends meet, or in a different profession previous to entering the teaching profession, have been losing S.S. points each year. Some teachers have already been bumped below the 40 points they'd earned before these laws.
VOTE YES ON MAY 11th.
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