Two final bills....

It is important for all of us in education to realize there were two bills that will impact compensation for educators into the future. #1400 is good news and will likely be usable...BUT the TFFR bill will not be helpful. In the final days the legislature decided that instead of using general fund dollars to pay for a one time increase in retired teachers benefits (which they deserve) they tacked on a permanent .5% increase in the contributions made to the fund by school boards.

Every time in the past when this has happened the increase has been passed on to active educators in the form of a bargaining argument that raises have to be reduced by the cost of this increase. NDCEL was opposed to this concept till the end because of this very reason.

I will be interested to see if this plays out this way since most districts are just getting started bargaining now....