Texas legislators discuss health insurance funding
Public school teachers receive poor benefits, pay

By Jillanne Johnson
Staff Reporter

When the Texas Legislature began the 77th session Monday, legislators began searching for the best way to provide state-funded health insurance to the only state employees who don’t already receive benefits — public school employees, said Dale Young, director of career services and field experience for the School of Education.

Providing state-funded insurance would help alleviate the teacher shortage, thus increasing the quality of education in Texas, said Roxanne Evans, public relations director for the Texas Federation of Teachers.

According to Texas Federation of Teachers statistics, as many as one-fifth of state teachers leave each year because benefits and pay are so low.

Young said students have already been lobbying for change. He has been asking students to write their senators and representatives about the issue.

Jackie Hernandez, senior elementary education major, said benefits are important to her. She said she would choose a school system with better benefits even if the pay was not as good.

“What is good pay if you end up dishing out a lot for benefits?” Hernandez said. “If anything, they need to make our benefits worth working for.”

Hernandez said she would even be attracted to Texas from out of state if Texas offered great benefits.

A year ago, the Texas Federation of Teachers lobbied for a pay raise for teachers; however, Evans said a large amount of the $3,000 teachers received was consumed by rising insurance costs. The Teacher’s Retirement System Care plan is leaving more financial responsibility for insurance costs to retired teachers on fixed incomes, Evans said.

Several bills are being debated in the Texas House of Representatives and Senate concerning teachers’ health insurance.

epresentative Harryette Ehrhardt, D-Dallas County, and Senator John Carona, R-Dallas County, have filed bills which allot funds for the health insurance of all current and retired school employees with coverage comparable to what other state employees have.

A recent Scripps Howard opinion poll showed that 85 percent of the public believes improving compensation for teachers would be the best way to approach a solution for the teacher shortage. Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed believe public school employees are entitled to the same benefits as other state employees.

But groups like the Texas Association of Business and Chambers of Commerce are concerned with funding sources.

Bill Hammond, TBCC president, said they are concerned with the $2.5 billion increase in education funding that would occur if school employees are provided with health insurance.

“The tough truth is that the state-funded plan by Senator Corona and Representative Ehrhardt could force a state income tax by the next biennium,” Hammond said. “Taxpayers will foot an enormous bill that will be compounded biannually.”

However, the Texas Federation of Teachers, as a part of the Coalition for a Better Texas which was formed to lobby for this issue, said there is enough money in the existing budget to cover this plan for the first year, leaving legislators time to discover where continuing funds will come from. According to Texas Federation of Teachers statistics, this plan would also save $6.5 billion annually that is being used to bail out the Teachers Retirement System Care Plan.

Young said teachers currently tend to get treated like second-class citizens when it comes to funding. The legislature may pass bills to support better teacher benefits but won’t allot money for action.

“There’s always a loophole for teachers,” Young said. “They are hired by local school districts but funded by the state.”

Individual school districts and employees must foot the bill for health insurance, Young said. He said the larger school districts have the numbers of employees that make it possible to contract with insurance companies. The smaller school districts are often requiring their employees to pay for a large amount or all of the insurance themselves.

According to the Texas Federation of Teachers, teachers are lobbying to have “health insurance as good as the governor’s,” which is what other state employees are promised. Evans said this means the average Dallas Independent School District employee will save as much as two-thirds on insurance costs.

Legislators are now discussing the options available in committee. They are expected to make a decision by the end of the session, May 29.

Jillanne Johnson
j.johnson@student.tcu.edu