Why health-care cuts for Philly teachers are likely to hurt schools, too

The SRC's decision to cut teachers' health-care benefits will likely hurt the District's ability to recruit and retain the best educators possible.

PFT President Jerry Jordan
Mark Stehle

When the School Reform Commission voted to "cancel" the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers' contract and cut health-care benefits for teachers, nurses, counselors and other members, the district talked about the money it would save. Unmentioned was the likely impact on ensuring high-quality teaching.

Among other changes, PFT members must now, mostly for the first time, pay toward their insurance premiums — standard practice not only across the private sector but in many school districts as well. The SRC's action Monday was an extraordinary move, one made with almost no public notice. And it strikes at what is likely among the PFT's least popular positions with the public.

But as things now stand, Philadelphia teachers are already paid less than their suburban counterparts to teach under far more difficult conditions — conditions that have only gotten worse amid the severe budget crises and deep staffing cuts. As warring parties debate whether the SRC's action was legal (it might not be) or reasonably transparent (probably not), the basic question of how the cut will affect teachers, and schools as a whole, remains unanswered. At issue is not just an individual teacher's financial position and morale but, as a consequence, the School District of Philadelphia's ability to recruit and retain the best educators possible.

"The SRC has been quick to point out what school district employees in nearby counties pay for health care," said PFT President Jerry Jordan in a statement sharply criticizing the SRC's move. "What they fail to mention is that Philadelphia's educators are paid far less than their suburban counterparts, and spend thousands of their own dollars for classroom supplies for their students."

The move was hailed by Gov. Tom Corbett, Mayor Michael Nutter and self-described school-reform groups hostile to the PFT. It could cost between $334.10 and $868.92 annually for an individual, and between $1,002.56 and $2,606.76 for a family—and up to between $2,822.56 and $4,426.76 for a "family plus" plan.

The School District of Philadelphia unquestionably needs any cash it can get: It suffers from long-term underfunding, huge pension obligations and debt payments, and massive cuts imposed by the Republican governor that have exacerbated every other fiscal problem.

According to the district, the PFT now has 11,232 members, down by 5,176 from the 2010-11 school year. The district, governed by the state-controlled SRC since 2002, says that health-care savings will redirect $53.8 million back into schools.

"We didn't want to reduce individuals' salaries or lay off more individuals that we can't afford to do more without," Superintendent William Hite, who concedes teachers aren't paid enough, tells City Paper. "We need this help to get these resources into schools right now."

The School District and SRC have pointed to city tax hikes, state funding (somewhat bizarrely) and the concessions made by unions representing blue-collar workers and principals to make the case that the PFT is the single party that has not made sacrifices to ameliorate the budget crisis. Last year, the SRC suspended teacher seniority protections for re-hiring laid-off staff, and only recently dropped demands for a salary cut.

"Every single stakeholder has stepped up to help the district close its structural deficit — the principals, our blue-collar workers. Families and children have, too, through the loss of resources, increased class sizes and lack of materials. It is time for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers to share in the sacrifice," SRC Chair Bill Green told the Inquirer.

But the state control of the public schools, under a governor closely allied with reform groups, has distorted public debate. Green, for example, somehow always fails to mention the impact of the governor's budget cuts on district finances. Notably, he and two more of the SRC's five members, owe their appointments to Corbett.

What's more, the assertion that PFT members have not made sacrifices is simply not true. The PFT contract expired last summer, and teachers have since been working under a pay freeze. That freeze has denied teachers not only across-the-board hikes typical in past years, but also standard annual raises, known as "steps" and "lanes," or raises for obtaining advanced degrees. The district tells City Paper that the lane and step freeze has saved about $31 million to date.

Richard Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on the teaching profession, says that he is sympathetic to Hite's position, but that the city already has "trouble competing with the suburbs for teachers." The cuts "will only hurt the recruitment and retention of teachers in the Philadelphia School District."

Ingersoll says that teaching has "never has been a particularly well-paid line of work" compared to other professions, but that "part of the deal was it had good benefits." To improve student learning, the quality of teaching must be improved, and to do that will require a move "to improve the quality of the teaching job. And what we see here is a reform, a move by the SRC, that would lower the quality of the teaching job."

The health-care cuts come amid a broader campaign by Corbett, reform groups and the SRC to shift blame onto the PFT. Indeed, last July City Paper reported on a secret poll and report contracted by the group PennCAN, which urged Corbett to use an attack on the PFT as a measure to revive his flagging re-election odds. Corbett is up for re-election this November and polls show that he is likely to lose, thanks in large part to education funding cuts.

"PFT members know that they didn't cause the SDP budget crisis — Governor Corbett caused it by cutting school funding massively at the same time" he cut business taxes, says former School District CFO Michael Masch in an e-mail, adding that he does not believe that the SRC has the legal right to impose terms on the union.

"Of course many [teachers] are demoralized," Masch continues. "The real miracle is how many Philly teachers continue to be upbeat and determined to do their job, no matter what happens. That is truly inspiring. But each new adverse development is chipping away at the idealism and morale of Philly teachers."

Self-described reformers focus their ire on removing ineffective teachers from the classrooms. But for a poor district like Philadelphia, attracting and retaining good teachers — to teach children with much greater needs and much less assistance — is likely a much larger problem.

A Pennsylvania School Boards Association 2010-11 analysis found that Philadelphia teacher salaries are 19 percent lower than those in Bucks and Montgomery counties — and that was before the pay freeze. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a 2012 study by Stanford University's Center for Education Policy Analysis found "that a differential salary increase can improve a school district's attractiveness within the local teacher labor market and increase both the size and quality of the teacher applicant pool."

Ken Futernick, a reform critic and professor emeritus of education at California State University, Sacramento, predicts the move to "save money will generate huge costs of its own. A cut in teachers' benefits and an escalation of dysfunction in the district will lead to increased teacher attrition. The cost to recruit and train replacements, if qualified ones can be found, range from $20,000 to $30,000 per teacher. But that does not account for the time principals must take to screen, interview and train candidates when they could be supporting classroom instruction. Perhaps the greatest cost of increased teacher churn is the harm it will do to student learning."

Masch believes that PFT members should contribute to their health-care premiums, but that they should receive "a pay raise, not a pay cut" in return.

"I support PFT members contributing to the cost of their health benefits, since most other unionized teachers in Pennsylvania do so," he said in email. "That's why employers and employee unions negotiate contracts — so ALL the issues can be addressed in a comprehensive way at the same time."

A 2007 study by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future found that 70 percent of new Philadelphia teachers drop out within their first six years on the job, and a 2009 analysis by the Philadelphia Public School Notebook found that the city's highest-poverty schools also had the highest rate of teacher turnover, with many losing 30 to 40 percent of their teachers each year.

Dan Ueda, Central High School's former robotics coach, says that tough conditions and slim financial rewards make it hard for even the most dedicated teachers to stay.

"The hours are very long, the conditions are extremely difficult at most schools, job security due to constant threat of layoffs is very low, and resources — both material and personnel — get reduced every year," says Ueda by email. "Why would you stay in those conditions if you could teach in safer environments, with more resources, more support and higher pay in New Jersey or the suburbs? Central High School, one of the best places to work in the city, lost five high-quality teachers last year to private or suburban institutions (myself included) almost completely due to this contract battle."

Ueda taught physics, pre-calculus, robotics and engineering, and design technology at the elite mag­net school for six years before moving to the Uni­versity of Pennsylvania, where he develops STEM education programs in the Philadelphia area.

The newly imposed health-care terms also transfer management of prescriptions, vision, and dental coverage from the union's Health and Welfare Fund to the district's beleaguered central office, which the PFT believes will likely result in co-payment hikes for members. That means the district will no longer pay the fund $4,352 annually per member, and also raises the question of whether the central office, which itself has sustained huge cuts in recent years, can effectively manage the program.

"The Health and Welfare office has been an absolute lifesaver when it comes to navigating health care," says Larissa Pahomov, a teacher at Science Leadership Academy and an activist with the PFT's Caucus of Working Educators, who had a non-cancerous tumor removed from her femur in July. "When my doctor wanted to prescribe a medication after surgery that would have cost me $1,000 out of pocket, I literally called the Health and Welfare office from my hospital bed to sort out the matter. I know that they will always answer the phone and provide me with excellent information and advocacy. I don't know anybody who can say the same thing of calling the district central office.

The idea of 440 [N. Broad Street, the address of district headquarters] managing my benefits terrifies me." Pahomov believes the SRC move is a political effort to undercut the PFT by eliminating "one of the things that the union does very well, thereby directly decreasing their power. Reductions do not have to mean the dissolving of that office."

The only notice that the SRC would be holding a meeting at 9:30 on Monday morning, aside from an early-morning email, was a small legal notice on page E4 of Sunday's Inquirer that almost nobody noticed until the night before the meeting. For teachers, sneakily reducing benefits amidst austerity will likely further undermine the sense that they are valued as professionals.

"We were supposed to absorb these vaunted 'private sector efficiencies,'" emails Andrew Saltz, a teacher at Robeson High School in West Philadelphia. "Can you imagine Google cutting their administrators' pay and saying, 'If you leave, it shows you don't care about the Internet?' They don't want professionals. They want saints. And I'm not a biblical scholar, but I'm fairly sure the memory of saints is a lot more comfortable than the lives of saints."

Correction: Based on numbers provided by the School District of Philadelphia, City Paper reported that the new health-care payments "could cost a teacher as much as $852 extra per year for individual coverage, and as much as $2,400 a year for family coverage." The district now says that it miscalculated those numbers.

According to the district, the cost could be between $334.10 and $868.92 for an individual, and between $1,002.56 and $2,606.76 for a family—and up to between $2,822.56 and $4,426.76 for a "family plus" plan. There is also a generally more expensive "personal choice" plan that members can pay more for. City Paper will be examining differences between the various plans, old and new, in coming days.