The Illinois Education Association is urging lawmakers to lift the three percent salary cap for teachers' pensions.
Last year, lawmakers approved a provision in the budget that limited salary increases for educators in the Teachers Retirement System and State University Retirement System to three percent in the last ten years of their career, unless the employer is willing to pick up the extra cost. The threshold was six percent, which is what IEA wants restored.
Annette Jaynes has taught in the Carbondale School District for 24 years. She says this unfairly penalizes veteran educators like herself.
"Many of our students deal with trauma and trauma-related issues. If you know anything about trauma, it takes a long time for those students to build relationships with adults. Those are very important. If this cap continues, it's going to be hard to retain our teachers and it's going to make our students suffer with those relationships that are so important."
The IEA says employers are now arguing for a three percent cap on all salary increases across an entire contract, which will add to the state's teacher shortage.
Wednesday, the IEA delivered 55,000 petition signatures to lawmakers in Springfield.
