Fill the prescription

Teachers need health-care reform

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Education reform has been a hot topic in Arkansas. While policymakers champion new and innovative ideas to improve education in the state, it's critical that we strike a delicate balance between common-sense reform, fiscal sanity, and quality of life for our hardworking educators.

Nowhere is this balance more needed than in the current state of health-care benefits for Arkansas' hardworking teachers. According to a recently released survey of teachers by the Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA), our state's educators and school employees are suffering greatly under the current cost of health care. Many are spending nearly all of their take-home pay on insurance for themselves and their families.

After listening to consultants and other experts, we believe this crisis was avoidable. It appears while other public-sector industries responded to health-care insurance market changes by shifting to quality, more affordable alternatives, the Employee Benefits Division chose to protect rich plans to the detriment of school employees and taxpayers.

While we recognize rising health-care costs are an issue for more than just school employees, it's important to note that school employees believe more effective local decision-making could have prevented the current crisis. This contributes to the fact that 84 percent of ASTA members surveyed did not trust or were uncertain that the Employee Benefits Division was capable of managing their health-insurance program, and do not want additional benefit programs to be managed by the agency.

As a result, teachers and other education employees have to make difficult budget decisions. Arkansas' two-parent educator families, noncertified staff, and single-parent homes appear to be taking some of the biggest hits as many respondents reported cases of children having to be dropped from insurance plans altogether.

One teacher remarked, "We've not had a raise in six years, and rising health-insurance premiums cause me to have a pay cut each year. I'm worried for myself, but I'm just as worried about our support staff and my district being able to hire quality teachers." Another school employee is using her salary as a school secretary exclusively for health-care coverage.

Their stories are just the tip of the iceberg.

The issue of rising health-care costs in Arkansas is particularly timely as premiums are set to rise 38 percent in 2015. According to a legislative panel facilitated by the Arkansas Public Resource Center on Oct. 30, 2012, policymakers indicated that the state would reach a point where the "cost of health-care premiums would impact our ability to hire and retain quality teachers."

Based on the ASTA survey, 95 percent agreed that the state has already reached this point.

In order to retain and attract quality education employees, this issue needs to be addressed at the state level in a manner that institutes clearer expectations for the Employee Benefits Division, brings plans into alignment with current reality, and institutes effective rate-control measures.

The solutions considered for the special session earlier this week are not intended to be the long-term restructuring necessary to truly turn the plan around. We are hopeful legislators will continue to address the matter in the 2015 general session.

While ASTA members embrace a professional philosophy and needed reforms for the sake of our students, we must also focus on incentivizing educators with reasonable salary and benefits packages that meet diverse lifestyles and address a quality of living.

Our respected professionals deserve innovative pay structures that provide quality benefits and rewards for their success. Recognizing budget realities, we must work collaboratively to create a system for our educators that balances the need for reform with attracting the next generation's work force.

Teachers and school employees play a critical role in the economic development and sustainability of this state. Investing in the health and well-being of our teachers and other school employees, in a fair and equitable manner, will be of great benefit to the state of Arkansas.

Study after study proves that the key to student success is having an effective teacher in the classroom. Our goal as a state should be to provide a quality teacher for every student. We must provide competitive compensation to attract high-quality individuals to the teaching profession. Our success as a state depends on it.

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Dr. Michele Linch is the executive director of the Arkansas State Teachers Association.

Editorial on 07/03/2014