Sitka, Petersburg, and other communities in Southeast Alaska are reducing staff or laying off teachers next year, but that’s not the case everywhere.
“Well in Sitka jobs are going away,” said Rebecca Himschoot, who represents House District 2, “and that’s been a really hard part of coming home and seeing sort of the fallout of our situation here in Sitka. But across the state, the increase in first-day vacancies has been something like 300% in the last five years. So there are lots of districts who haven’t had fully staffed schools for quite some time.”
House Bill 230 removes the limit on the number of years of experience teachers moving to the state can bring with them (six for a Bachelor’s Degree, eight for a Master’s Degree), when they enter the state’s Teachers’ Retirement System.
Himschoot says the limit is an artifact of outdated policy.
“That (the limits) made sense when we had a defined benefit system,” she said, “if you had a lot of 18-, 19-, 20-year educators coming in and you plunk them down on your salary schedule, it is going to be really expensive for our pension system. So this law probably should have been repealed when pensions were repealed back in 2006.”
But doing away with pensions also suddenly made an attractive retirement for teachers an outdated concept. Rather than a lifelong pension and medical benefits, teachers now have to save cash for retirement, because that’s all they’ll get. Unbelievably, Alaska’s teachers are disqualified from receiving Social Security.
Himschoot, a teacher herself in the Sitka School District for many years, says something has to change, and this bill moves the needle – but only slightly.
“This is not going to open floodgates of any sorts,” she said. “So this is not, this is not the fix. I think there are other tools out there that are going to be more impactful. But in combination with the other things that got placed into the bill, House Bill 230, it packs a punch. It’s not going to be the thing that changes the education landscape, but it is one part of the many things we need to do to improve education in the state.”
Two other teacher-legislators have joined Himschoot on HB230. Nikiski Sen. Jesse Bjorkman and Fairbanks Rep. Maxine Dibert added provisions that make it more attractive for retired teachers to return to the classroom, and incentivize national board-certified teachers.
Himschoot believes this is good policy, and good for students, but it’s cold comfort for younger educators who just can’t make it work in Alaska over the long term, when the prospects are significantly better elsewhere.
“When you have young teachers either produced here in Alaska, which tend to stick a little bit better, or young teachers who come from out of state, and you invite them in – a young teacher is a good teacher, but they’re not generally always a great teacher,” said Himschoot. “It takes time. It just takes time to find your way, to navigate your way into classroom success. So they spend that time here in Alaska, and then there’s nothing really holding them here. So they can go anywhere else they want to teach. Other states all offer something in the way of a pension or a hybrid plan or something more enticing than Alaska’s utter lack of retirement and no access to Social Security.”
The question on many minds in education right now is whether Gov. Dunleavy will sign off on a one-time appropriation of $680 per student next year, that could restore a few teaching positions in districts that have had layoffs. Himschoot is optimistic, having heard the governor make a “soft commitment” during a recent press conference. But that’s one-time money. Himschoot, just finishing her first term in the legislature, hopes to win reelection and take up education again in the new legislature in 2025. “The needs of the state are great,” she says, “and it’s a real honor to get to go there and try to solve problems.”
