The tension at the heart of pension politics is the incentive to satisfy today's claimants in the here-and-now at the expense of long-term concerns. Rules and auditing standards are intended to tame this kind of short-sighted behavior in the private sector. In the public sector, the primary safeguard is the hope that public officials will not be…

Considerable research has been conducted into teacher retention and attrition (Huberman, 1989; Dinham, 1995; Ewing & Smith, 2002). Little is known, though, of the circumstances of ex-teachers, in terms of factors such as salary, workload, working conditions and "job prestige". For this paper, telephone interviews were conducted with 22…

While many teachers have district-funded pensions that are the envy of their counterparts in other professions, the reality is that most must still augment their retirement savings. Yet K-12 educators and administrators are often uninformed about how to invest wisely. In this article, the author relates how former educator Dan Otter discovered…

Across the nation, schools increasingly are tapping into a vast resource pool--retired educators. The potential effects of the retirement boom--baby boomers reaching retirement age--have been well documented. An April 2009 "New York Times" article estimates that by 2013, more than one-third of the nation's 3.2 million teachers could…

This article presents an interview with Marion Frances Kaleleonalani McGregor Lee Loy who served as a teacher in the Hawai'i Department of Education from 1935 to 1974. Marion McGregor Lee Loy was born in 1911 in Honolulu. She attended Central Grammar and Lincoln Grammar schools before entering Kamehameha School for Girls in the ninth grade. Lee…

A town was in danger of losing an excellent teacher because of what many educators now call outdated state teacher retirement regulations. (MM)

As many baby boomers prepare to retire in the next decade, there are not enough young junior faculty members in the professoriate to replace them, according to a recent study by the American Council on Education (ACE). The ACE report, "Too Many Rungs on the Ladder? Faculty Demographics and the Future of Leadership in Higher Education," highlights…

The traditional teaching career is collapsing at both ends. Beginners are being driven away by antiquated preparation practices, outdated school staffing policies, and inadequate career rewards. At the end of their careers, accomplished veterans who still have much to contribute are being separated from their schools by obsolete retirement…

The advantages and disadvantages of the Federal Social Security program are discussed. (CK)

After years of non-stop increases--national k-12 per-pupil spending is up by "one-third" in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1995--schools now face the near-certainty of repeated annual budget cuts for the first time since the Great Depression. In some states and districts, reductions will be dramatic--well into the double digits. And…

Switching from humor to sentiment at the turn of a page, this is a great gift book for retiring teachers or any teacher having a rough day. It deals humorously with situations every teacher can relate to. An added bonus is a Donna Whyte poem that's perfect for reading at retirement celebrations.

It sounds like a simple solution to a growing problem: Address teacher shortages by adopting policies that encourage veterans to stay in the classroom while attracting retirees back to the job. While many states and districts are doing just that, they are also finding that their policies can have unintended consequences--such as raising questions…

University business programs have been facing a growing dilemma concerning how to address increasing shortages of doctoral-level faculty. In this study, the authors examine the challenges facing business schools because of the identified shortage, especially in light of pending baby boomer retirements. With the California State University system…

This policy brief summarizes findings presented at a February 2009 research conference on teacher retirement systems hosted by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College. The 2009 conference was the second in a series of NCPI events focusing on findings from recent research on issues related to…