In
his budget proposal unveiled last month, Rauner included no money for
the Teachers Retirement Insurance Program, which provides
state-subsidized coverage for thousands of retired teachers statewide.
The elementary and secondary education budget the governor signed for
this year included $110 million for the program, about one-quarter of
its total cost. The rest comes from school districts, active teachers
and premiums paid by retirees.
Pasty
Sherrard, of Normal, Illinois, who taught business in Marseilles and
Gridley before retiring in 1993, said she depends on the insurance to
help her get by on her pension, a small Social Security check and income
from a part-time job.
“I am struggling,” Sherrard said,
fighting back tears during a Statehouse news conference held Wednesday
by the Illinois Retired Teachers Association. “I am 76 years old, with
serious health issues. I have breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Although presently in remission, the threat of cancer’s return is always
lurking. This is why my health insurance, and its affordability, is a
constant concern to me.”
She
said she and other teachers worked for small salaries in exchange for
the promise of a good pension and affordable health care in retirement.
Premiums
for retirees would double under Rauner’s budget proposal, according to
the Retired Teachers Association. Jim Bachman, the organization’s
executive director, said current premiums range from $42 to $793 per
month.
Bachman said the proposal is at odds with the governor’s statements that education is his top priority.
“If
you’re in total support of education, you’re not only going to support
the educators that are out there today but the educators that were out
there in the past and the benefits that they were promised,” he said.
Maria Millen, who’s also from Normal
and taught elementary school there for 35 years, said she’s concerned
that the trust she and fellow teacher put in the system will be broken.
“As
educators, we did our jobs, grading papers and teaching thousands of
students, assured that our insurance benefits would be available to us
in retirement,” she said.
The
governor’s office says he showed the priority he places on education by
proposing full funding for general state aid to schools for the first
time in seven years.
“In
conjunction with this record funding, the budget also recommends
limiting the state subsidy to health care plans that cover people that
were never employed by the state,” spokeswoman Catherine Kelly wrote in
an emailed statement. “This will allow us to allocate more resources to
students in the classroom.”
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