Should the financial plan proposed last Thursday at Alabama Board of Education push through, teachers and other education employees would have to pay more for their retirement and health insurance benefits. After casting their votes, the board unanimously agrees with the state Superintendent of Education Joe Morton’s proposition which is called “a plan of survival”.

The board, in addition, suggests the following:

* The percentage of the state education budget that goes for K-12 schools should be increased by a little more than 1 percentage point.

* Education employees must start paying 6 percent of their salary toward retirement instead of 5 percent.

* The state education budget provides no increase for health insurance and retirement benefits for the next school year.

Morton said that educators have been paying $2 per month for their state’s health insurance coverage since 1986 and if this kind of rate continues while the benefits remain at its current level, it will require an extra $238 million for health insurance in the 2010-2011 school year and $57 million more for retirement.

“With the recession shrinking Alabama’s tax collections, that kind of money won’t be available”, he said. Morton also emphasizes that the only way to maintain benefits without charging educators more is to cut classroom programs.