FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
May 23, 2017
Contact: Sam Inglot, 616-916-0574, sam@progressmichigan.org
Latest MPSERS Proposal From Republicans Will Worsen Already Bad Situation
LANSING – Newly introduced legislation to close the public school employee pension system to all new hires would have a damning effect on teacher attraction and retention, Progress Michigan announced today, and would do more harm than good to the system’s viability overall.
“The hypocrisy of legislative Republicans is astounding. To introduce legislation shortly after Teacher Appreciation Week that attacks wages and retirement security for the people who spend countless hours and often their own money ensuring a good education for our children is a sick sense of gratitude,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director for Progress Michigan. “Lawmakers should be doing more, not less, to encourage the bright, talented people who enter the teaching profession to stick with it.”
Elected officials have tried, unsuccessfully, once before to close the system to new hires as SB 410 and HB 4647 seek to do. That concept fell apart after several non-partisan analyses surfaced showing not only an enormous up-front cost but questionable gains from doing as much.
“This not-so-thinly-veiled attempt to do the bidding of Dick and Betsy DeVos is reprehensible. Many teachers have a hard enough time making ends meet, and what little they have left is often put toward their students,” Scott said. “We stand with educators in demanding lawmakers work on issues that actually matter to their constituents, not just those who fill their campaign coffers.”
###