With some districts reportedly offering retirement incentives to teachers who have 15 years of experience or more, the length of today’s teachers’ career may be shortening. If an educator started at age 21, he or she could be targeted for “retirement” at just 36. Although many districts are scrambling to pull in funding from wide-ranging sources, some may want to rethink the concept of enticing experienced teachers to leave schools in order to save money.
As reported by District Administration, some school officials view cutting one older teacher as akin to being able to hire two new, young, inexperienced and cheap teachers. The National Education Association reports the average salary for a public school teacher fell roughly 4% in the last decade.
