Don't celebrate yet

"The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them."
-Revelations 11:10-11

Too often we celebrate the battle as if we won the war. It has been a roller coaster recently for Pennsylvania teachers. We have always contributed to our defined benefit pension, but almost had it taken away this summer while Governor Rendell was still in office, who was relatively supportive of education. Now we have Governor Corbett, who does not support education as much as he thinks he supports taxpayers, as if education does not benefit taxpayers. Most expected small cuts across the board, but what he proposed was huge cuts to K-12 and higher education and pay raises for his personal staff, while still emphasizing that all must give and all must sacrifice in these hard times.

So school districts are trying to make plans based on how low their budgets might be come July 1. The legislature is trying to restore some money because schools are laying off 15% of their teachers, cutting foreign language, music, and other programs. My district was preparing to furlough 41 teachers on top of the 10 already retiring out of 289 teachers total. Fortunately, enough teachers at the top of the pay scale decided to retire early and take a long-term penalty to save jobs for their friends. Most will get other jobs because the defined benefit does not increase with inflation like social security. Some teachers that retired a long time ago are trying to live off of $8,000/year. It's what they signed up for, so few complained, but it's frustrating when Governor Corbett says that teachers' pensions are extravagant.

The point is: a thousand years are like a watch in the night to God, so whatever the success or failure is today, keep it in perspective. We kept our pensions this summer, but they could just as easily be taken away in the future. We may have to take some losses next year, but we can win those gains back for the students in other years.