State Education Board Did Not Allocate Funds for Teachers' Retirement Accounts

By Adrianna Iwasinski, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Teacher Retirement System Board voted for an attorney general's opinion on a hot-button issue.

Last month, the State Board of Education chose not to allocate $35 million of budget appropriated funds into the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System credit. That decision did not sit well with the OTRS Board.

The credit is the portion the state pays to teachers' contributions into their retirement accounts.

A first year teacher was expected to receive $60 this year from the credit to go into their retirement account. A teacher with at least 25 years of experience would receive around $1,400 with that credit.

Teachers are required to belong to the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System and are required by law to make a contribution.

Now every teacher in the state is waiting to see if they will get anything at all.

OTRS Executive Director James Wilbanks said he is hoping for a resolution where teachers and school districts don't have to pay in more than they are required.

When lawmakers passed the budget in June, they gave allocations of money to various state agencies, but did not tell them how to spend that money.

For 12 years the Legislature has appropriated $35 million to the Board of Education with instructions to allocate the money for the teachers' contributions, which the state is required to pay.

This year that did not happen.

The Board of Education allocated some of the money to help pay for increases in health insurance premiums for teachers and education support staff, which is also required by law.

The State Board of Education is asking lawmakers for an emergency measure to fully fund the teachers' retirement credit for this year and next year. But that request is not being well received by lawmakers who claim education was spared the most drastic cuts and should have found a way to fund the retirement account with the money they were given.

It may be months before teachers get an opinion from the attorney general too. First that office has to determine if this is a finding of law or finding of fact. Then the AG will have to go through a process of what, if anything, can be done.