The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-01-20
SHOULD VETERAN TEACHERS BE PENs1oNED?

Should teachers who have been many years in
the service of the state be pensionedg
This is question that win be asked of the General
Assembly, this year and that must be answered. in
one way another.
and solved exceenty or indifferenty WELL in some %
states of the Union.
of women who have taught for 25 so, or IS years
They must be provided for, allowed to lnger in
the service until their useessness that dis
nissa must be resorted to in protection of the children
whom they teach.
But to veteran teacher adrift upon her own
scanty resources is repugnant to humanity
Some sort of pension plan will have to be installed in
KIND of plan that shall be adopted than whether SOME
There are two main methods of reaching the matter
The system of direct pensions be established Or
system ifbo of pee5GP9t9g 69HoS may be with
In the first the state creates fund from which
But participation is sometimes demanded whereby
each in the employment of the schools contributes
something to fund to which the state also contributes
something
Where the participation is voluntary many teachers
are not willing to come into the plan.
Where it is compulsory, many teachers resent the
cOmpulsion, and oppose passage OF law nilctng It,
There is much justice in the attitude of the teachers
who thus opposed to PARTICIPATION in any pen
Most women enter the schools do intend to
make life work Of teaching. To them teaching is
avoeation Their vocation marriage and the family.
There are some 5000 teachers in the Connecticut
schools 1t will that but $50 of this number have
taught 80 years
These the backbone of the educational structure
nish NUCLEUS about which the passing stream of
novitiate teachers may be grouped into efficient unit
But since few remain in the SERVICE and since
many enter the service only out of to the family
it would be real INJUSTICE to demand from the not
generous compensation Of the many moiety to build
protected age for the few
There is the additional objection to the participating
plan that it costs almost much to administer it. to make
collections and carry accounts with individuals
is received from it. And it may also be considered in
weighing the merits of the direct and the participating
plans that every pension burden must fall at last upon
the entire society 1t is proper to place it there in the
first instance especially the amount required to
cute act of social justice obviously necessary will be
small.
The latest effort in the line of teachers pensions
recommended the State Board of Education
ehusetts. mingng of the direct the participant
ing plan, plus effort to make compusion acceptable
at least not hardship.
The whole body of teachers existing when the bill
becomes law to be permitted to join in pension
plan under state supervision
Those who desire to enter may do so. Those who do
not need not. But entrance and participation is made
compulsory upon all teachers who the
the proposed law shall take effect.
The state will contribute to the fund equal to
the contributions of the teachers.
The plan is evidently compromise less desirable
makes provision adequate protect the body of
better than nothing howeveran superior to other
plans that have been proposed.