Kevin Cash

Hi, my name is Kevin Cash. I am a public school teacher within the Burrillville School District. I am currently in my 32nd year of employment with Burrillville. I am taking what is probably my third opportunity to present my thoughts regarding the pension changes of 2011 and our current retirement scenario. Back in the day, myself and several others in Burrillville, testified at a Committee hearing as to the wrongs of these proposed changes. It is with great disappointment that I reflect on my career, in order to assess the impact of the Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011 on me and my family, for these newest of inquiries. For instance, when I started my career and began lawfully paying into annual contributions of 8.5 percent and above, throughout my career, it was always with the foresight of a retirement imminent, by my 53rd year of my life. Obviously, that is no longer the case, as I am now approaching 57 and unable to retire due to this Law crafted in 2011. Indeed, it won't be until I am 62 before I can realize the benefits of my mandated contributions done at such a diligent scale that they cannot easily be found in the non-government working world. Translation, people in the private sector simply rarely, if ever, donate the amounts Teachers have to by law throughout our careers. Also, the sacrifices these contributions resulted in will have not and have not had anywhere near the benefit they were supposed to have had, from when I first started in 1992. There are results of these pension changes that can be seen in the education world from the Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011. These results cannot be seen easily by folks who are not here, in our working world. For instance, all RI districts are clogged with older, top step salary, dinosaur Teachers who cannot afford to retire. In most cases most of us are still at least 5 years away from our minimum retirement age. Not only do our abundant top salaries tear into the local budget, but also, Towns have to provide annual retirement contributions and these are based on percentages of our salaries. In our case, as in most towns, the majority of teachers are at top level salaries. Therefore, the retirement contribution annually is also at its highest. I suppose the situation could be more palpable if Teaching had somehow become easier. No sense in dispensing here, but with ever changing Certification guidelines, ambiguous evaluation methods, attempts to shun seniority, as well as the rise of non union charter schools; all work together to produce a significantly downtrodden veteran teacher population. Being a teacher, I could go on and on. However, I decided to provide a current although disappointing state of affairs. All with the hope that somehow, someone might try to do something about it. GodSpeed. Kevin Cash

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