Saturday, September 30, 2006

Our retirement plan is worse than yours

On Thursday, when I substituted that fourth grade class, I talked a bit with the teacher about my career. She said some interesting stuff about her district, the Jordan School District. She told me not to apply for a job in that district, to go to any of the other districts, such as Granite or Alpine. She said that since they changed their retirement plan and health benefits the district is no longer a good place to work.

Jordan School District did changed a lot about their retirement plan. No doubt about that and it is a lot worse than other plans in Utah. I have read a lot about this change in different newspapers and websites. But, I don't think this district will be unique in the next couple of years. After having worked in the corporate setting and watching my company and other companies do the same thing with benefits, I am not surprised that school districts are doing the same.

When I was hired as a technical writer and web developer six years ago, I worked for a company that was rated in the top ten companies nationwide for outstanding benefits. Two months after I started working there, the benefits changed dramatically and I don't think they even placed in the top 100,000 after that. So, I am not worried about the change in the Jordan School District and I will be very surprised if the other local school districts don't follow suit in the next five years. Times have changed and unfortunately education is not immune from the same changes.

Well, this teacher's attitude was "work anywhere but in this district, you'll be much better off." She even said that its less stressful working in the other districts. I think she is buying into grass is greener on the other side theory. I know teachers in the other school districts and once your there it isn't any different. Well, except that their benefits are better, for now.

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