Retired teachers’ insurance in state high court’s hands

By Emily Richmond

Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The fate of subsidized state health insurance for 1,900 retired teachers rests with the Nevada Supreme Court.

The seven justices are considering whether Metro Police must pay a subsidy for the department’s 150 retired officers who signed up with the state health insurance plan. Metro has refused to pay the bill, saying the officers were already covered by a health trust the police agency paid into as part of a negotiated contract. The Clark County School District’s teachers are covered by a similarly structured health trust, which is why the Supreme Court ruling on the retired police is expected to affect teachers’ eligibility for the state plan.

The Clark County School District and the teachers union continue to negotiate new health plan options for future retirees, but any announcement about the fruits of those negotiations won’t come until after the Supreme Court issues its ruling.

The Teachers Health Trust, which is funded with union-negotiated contributions from the district, stopped covering retirees in 2003, when the state health plan began offering subsidized coverage for a fraction of the cost.

One teacher called the Sun with an interesting suggestion: Why not allow retired teachers to return to work, receive health care coverage as active employees, and continue to collect retirement benefits?

In 2005 the Legislature voted to allow retired teachers to return to work and “double dip,” provided they were hired for hard-to-fill positions in areas such as math and special education. Expanding the dispensation to retired teachers who are on the brink of losing their health insurance “has potential,” said Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes. “That might kill two birds with one stone.”

In addition to protecting the employees, the district would have the benefit of more veteran teachers in the classroom, something that’s in short supply.

“If they’re still qualified and enthusiastic, I think it’s a good idea,” Rulffes said. “They have a great deal of knowledge and expertise, and that’s still valuable to us.”

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State Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, admits she was somewhat surprised by a new poll that found only 39 percent of Nevadans believed the state’s education funding was too low.

“I wouldn’t have predicted that,” Cegavske said following a news conference Tuesday at the Sawyer Government Building near the Nevada Policy Research Institute, which commissioned the poll.

Pollsters talked to 1,000 Nevada voters, with 63 percent of the responses coming from Clark County. That closely mirrors the state’s population distribution, said Steven Miller, vice president of the conservative-leaning think tank.

When asked their views on education funding, 24 percent of respondents said it was “too high” and 37 percent said it was “about right.”

State Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, one of the sharpest critics of the Clark County School District’s fiscal management, emerged from an elevator during the news conference and stuck around to pick up his own copy of the full report.

As for the large number of people who believe education funding doesn’t need a boost, Beers had his own theory.

“The public is growing increasingly watchful of misinformation,” said Beers, who has questioned the accuracy of rankings that put Nevada near the bottom in per-pupil funding. “For a long time, I took what the district and the teachers union said to be true. Now, people are getting leery.”

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Schools in the northeast region are competing for students now that an “open enrollment” pilot program is getting under way.

Students in grades one through 12 who live in the northeast region may apply to attend any school with available seats. Transportation will not be provided. When the pilot program was conceived last year, the district hoped to have funding from the 2007 Legislature to pay for transportation. But lawmakers rejected that allocation.

Applications are due March 14, and the region has two public information meetings remaining: Tuesday at Monaco Middle School, 1870 N. Lamont St., and Feb. 13, at Ute Perkins Elementary School, 1255 Patriots Way in Moapa. Both meetings begin at 6 p.m.