Teacher Pensions: Supporting the Educators Who Support Our Students
The National Public Pension Coalition (NPPC) reminds us that, as the new school year begins, teachers and school staff have navigated more than their share of stress and challenges over the past several years – from the COVID-19 pandemic and the huge demands it placed on educators, to the growing class sizes, staff shortages, and politicized attacks on curriculum that they face today. Furthermore, as the NPPC stresses, teachers, school staff, and public employees deserve more than words of gratitude—they deserve lasting retirement security. NCTR joins with our sister national organizations such as the NPPC in working to protect pensions and ensure that every educator who dedicates their life to serving our children can retire with dignity. You therefore do not want to miss the 2025 National Teacher of the Year, Ashlie Crosson, as she reminds us all why we are so committed to the work we do when she is honored by NCTR at our 103rd Annual Conference, October 4-7, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
[The NPPC is a national labor-aligned advocacy organization that works to protect defined benefit (DB) pensions for public employees across the U.S. through a network of national and state-based entities. Founded in 2007, NPPC collaborates with public sector unions, retiree associations, and other advocacy groups — supporting state-level coalitions in places like Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas – that often include teachers’ unions, firefighters’ associations, police organizations, and other public employee groups.]
As the NPPC notes, the start of a new school year is always a season of possibility, filled with excitement and energy. Yet behind this hopeful scene, “teachers and school staff shoulder heavy burdens and face challenges that don’t disappear when the first bell rings,” NPPC cautions.
In addition to coping with the continued fallout from the pandemic and today’s staff shortages and political attacks, they do so while receiving “pay that often lags behind that of their peers with similar education levels,” NPPC points out. (For more on this, see the June 5, 2025, NCTR FYI entitled “Educator Pay: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”)
Furthermore, “[o]n top of all this, educators are contending with an alarming rise in violence directed at schools,” NPPC reminds us. “Incidents of aggression against teachers have grown in recent years, and school shootings continue to haunt communities nationwide,” the organization notes, pointing out that “[j]ust last week, tragedy struck in Minneapolis, when a gunman opened fire during a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church, killing two children and injuring many others.”
The “chilling reality,” NPPC underscores, “is that teachers and school staff now carry an additional burden: worrying not just about their students’ academic progress, but about their safety—and their own—each day they enter a classroom.” Is it any wonder, then, that these compounding challenges “have left many educators feeling burned out, undervalued, and stretched thin,” as NPPC describes the situation.
Therefore, teachers and staff “are returning to classrooms with limited resources and mounting expectations,” NPPC says, and “support staff — bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, and paraprofessionals — are also feeling the strain of staffing shortages and stagnant wages.” Finally, the heightened threat of school violence “further adds to the emotional toll, forcing educators to juggle lesson plans alongside lockdown drills and safety concerns.”
The bottom line: “[t]eachers want to do what they do best—teach and nurture young minds—but they can’t do it alone. They need security and stability to remain in the classroom,” NPPC stresses.
This is why pensions matter, the organization explains, noting that “[o]ne of the most powerful tools we have to keep dedicated educators in our schools is retirement security,” and DB plans “offer teachers and staff peace of mind: after decades of service, they will have a guaranteed, reliable income in retirement.”
Pensions “keep experienced teachers in classrooms, help recruit new talent, and ensure that those who dedicate their careers to our children can retire with dignity,” NPPC emphasizes, warning that without pensions, “the ongoing nationwide teacher shortage would only deepen, as more educators would be forced to leave the profession early in search of financial stability elsewhere.”
NPPC therefore reminds Americans that, as the new school year begins, they need to remember that “investing in teachers and school staff is investing in our children and our communities,” and protecting pensions is therefore critical.
NCTR’s 103 Annual Conference is dedicated to this important cause, and every session is designed to provide our membership with the important tools needed to help secure this shared goal that NPPC has articulated so well. And the dinner on Monday night, October 6th, with an address from the National Teacher of the Year, is a true highlight.
But don’t take my word for it! As Amy Timmons, senior vice president, administration and technology consulting, with The Segal Company, says in a recent video concerning NCTR’s Annual Conference, it is “my favorite, absolute favorite” part.
As she goes on to explain, it is unique to NCTR. “I know of no other conference where they bring in outstanding members of their plans and show you why those plans are so important to the members and why we administer them efficiently, effectively, and continue them on for the membership,” she points out. It is “a unique feature that I would hate to miss,” she says.
So if you have not done so already, plan to be there! See for yourself what all your hard work helping to maintain a strong and secure retirement future for all teachers and educational employees really means.
Teachers touch lives forever, and NCTR members’ efforts are so important in making that possible!