ALBANY, N.Y. March 29, 2021 — New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta issued the following statement today on negotiations on legislation to create an early retirement incentive for public school employees as part of the state budget:
“Educators have shown a heroic effort throughout the pandemic as they’ve delivered services to millions of public school students. Amid fiscal uncertainty and ongoing pandemic-related challenges, the Assembly and Senate both included in their one-house budgets earlier this month an early retirement incentive that would give longer-serving teachers and school employees an option to retire without fear of being penalized. This incentive also would help school districts to achieve workplace efficiencies and financial savings without negatively impacting the quality of education and allow the next generation of educators to enter the workforce.
“It’s critical that any ERI adopted in the final state budget offers a level playing field for all public school employees statewide. An ERI for all public school employees would be a win-win for school districts and workers alike.”
New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.