Montgomery, AL – The Alabama Board of Education has proposed a financial plan that could require teachers and other education employees to pay more for the retirement and health insurance benefits.
The board voted Thursday for a plan to deal with what looks like a third year of lean funding for public schools. It recommended that education employees start paying 6 percent of their salary toward retirement rather than 5 percent.
It also recommended that the state education budget level fund health insurance benefits for the next school year. That would require the health insurance program to cut benefits or raise the amount that educators pay. State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton said educators have been paying $2 per month for health insurance since 1986.
All the changes would require legislative approval.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)