An audit finds a law passed by the Georgia Legislature to offer some relief to the state’s teacher shortage has not fixed the problem. Three years ago, legislators passed House Bill 385. It allowed retired teachers with 30 years of service to return to the classroom with full pay and a pension from the Teachers Retirement System (TRS), provided they sat on the sidelines for one year. The newly deepened bench helped, but not much. The number of retirees who returned to the classroom represented less than 1% of the state’s teacher workforce.
One reason, said the report, is that requirements for 30 years of service and the one-year timeout are more restrictive than similar laws in many other states. School systems told the auditors that a waiting period longer than a semester caused retirees to find jobs elsewhere — for instance, at private schools — or to get a taste of retirement and decide they didn’t want to work anymore. Georgia public schools were short 5,300 teachers as of December. Lawmakers are expected to take up the issue again during the next legislative session.
