The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-11-16
Pensioning the City's Teachers

use, when long years in the school room have
depleted their physical and mental stamina, de-
serves the support of the city. Indiana was the
twenty fifth state of the Union to pass teach
ers' pension bill. The measures become operative
January 1, 1917, and it is right that Richmond
teachers take steps to share its benefits as soon
as possible under the law. g.
The profession of teaching is one Of the most
unappreciative and unremunerative into which
younp man or a woman can enter. The salaries
that are paid for the qualifications required are
mea1er. The average salary of the teachers IN
the United States is only about $500. Out OF
this amount, teachers are compelled to maintain
a standard of living far in excess of the salary
paid them. They are compelled under an increas-
ingly demand for higher qualifications and bet
ter training to attend institutes, go to summer
schools, invest in books and periodicals dealing
with the latest movements in educational thought
and give of their time and money to social and
civic betterment organizations
The wear and tear of the school room on a
teachers nervous system needs no calculation.
Few teachers are able to end their careers in the
school room without having suffered one or more
nervous breakdowns. They constantly are under
the fire of the mischievous wiles and tricky de-
signs of young America. There is no chance for
relaxation during school hours, and after the
days session is over, they are compelled to pre-
pare for the next days recitations.
And as a reward for the many years of such
strain the teacher usually has little or nothing
in financial way on which to bank against the
rainy day and old age. If teacher breaks down.
under the present conditions, the weeks she is
absent from school are a monetary loss to her.
If she contracts contagious disease from pupil
and spends weeks at home recuperating, she
loses her pay and must foot the doctors bill. If
she is permanently disabled, or becomes too old
efficiently to manage school room, there is no
recourse to recoup her finances. She steps down
and out; substitute takes her place; and she is
left to fight the struggle for existence single
handed.
That this condition of affairs is manifestly
unjust and unfair will be seen readily and ought
to be appreciated easily by the school patron and
authorities. A public servant, who has given the
best of her life to the training Of boys and girls
into useful citizens of the state, is deserving of
more than kick out into the cold world.
The system by which this deplorabe condi-
ton is to be remedied is eminently fair. The
teachers themselves will pay the greater part of
the pension fund. The teacher pays every year
for forty years from $40 to $685. according to the
years of service Again, if old teacher wants
to retire soon after the law is in effect, she can
not do so by paying only for the current year.
She is compelled to pay for all the previous years.
For instance, if teacher has taught IS years
and wants to become beneficiary of the fund,
she must pay into the fund $500 for past services.
Only when the funds depleted, which even
under extraordinary circumstances would take
many years, the auditor makes up the deficit
from the state tuition funds before it is dstrib-
uted to the county treasurer.
If all the teachers of the city schools should
elect to enter the fund, there would be collected
from them this year $29,700, and $1,000 to
$1,000 every year hereafter. Basing calculations
upon the rate of retirements in Indianapolis
there will be four teachers retired in Richmond
after eight years. Taking an exaggerated case,
merely for the sake of example: If eight teach
ers were retired in Richmond each year, the
teachers fund alone, without touching one cent
of the tuition fund, would pay the whole ex-
pense for ten years.
From an ethical viewpoint, the teachers de-
serve the pension and the disability indemnities
paid under the system. From business stand
point, the plan cannot be opposed consistently,
for the teachers themselves are shouldering the
greatest part of the burden.
Every city in Indiana with population of
10000 or more. excepting Richmond and Ham
mond, are operating under a teachers pension
fund. The reason Hammond has not adopted the
law is because most Of its teachers serve only a
year or two and usually are students from the
universities at Chicago. - ,,-.= -.- =
Bread Baking Not Hazardous.
Washington state has workmen's compen-