2015 AARP:NRTA Conference Material

AARP:NRTA Conference
National Retired Teachers Alliance

RTAC First Vice President Louella Preston and RTAC Board of Directors member and Webmaster Roy Coleman, represented RTAC at the AARP:NRTA 2015 National Advisory Conference in Washington, D.C. from September 28 through October 1, 2015. As RTAC was one of the founding members of AARP:NRTA in 1945, Louella and Roy were all expense paid guests of AARP:NRTA. Representatives from 45 states participated with the representatives from Alaska traveling the farthest. While all other attendees represented their respective state’s retired educators, RTAC was the only organization that represented a city school district’s retired educators. Illinois retired educators from outside of Chicago were represented by Mary Shaw, the Illinois Retired Teachers’ Association’s Legislative Representative.

Although RTAC currently employs two legislative advocacy organizations which focus on Springfield legislation, this conference emphasized advocating at the federal level. Louella and Roy participated in eight different programs that focused upon the impact which current and proposed Federal legislation has on retirees. Since Illinois is one of about a dozen states where retired educators do not participate in Social Security, both Roy and Louella were particularly interested in these presentations. (See AARP:NRTA WEP-GPO Information and/or our Social Security Fairness Page.) They also had the opportunity to meet and interact with Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (Illinois -9th) and our two U.S. Illinois Senators – Richard Durbin and Mark Kirk. Louella and Roy anticipate utilizing the information they acquired at the meetings to identify strategies in which RTAC can engage to increase our involvement in the 2016 elections at the local, state and federal levels.

Photos of our representatives meeting with various legislators and NRTA officials are here.

Below are links to much of the material we received along with suggestions as to how to approach our legislators and encourage them to support our goals.

National Institute on Retirement Security, www.nirsonline.org
National Association of State Retirement Administrators, www.nasra.org
National Council on Teacher Retirement, www.nctr.org
National Conference of State Legislatures, www.ncsl.org
Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, http://crr.bc.edu
Center for State and Local Government Excellence, www.slge.org

Additional Resources:

Pensionomics 2014: Measuring the Economic Impact of DB Pension Expenditures (July 2014)
NIRS created state fact sheets that highlight the economic impact of pensions in your state. Click on the map and print off your state fact sheets. http://www.nirsonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=184&Itemid=88
Still a Better Bang for the Buck: Update on the Economic Efficiencies of Pensions (December 2014)
NIRS research finds that pension plans are a far more cost-efficient means of providing retirement income as compared to individual defined contribution accounts.
http://www.nirsonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=871&Itemid=48
NYSRTA Advocacy Request and Information on Student Testing
For those of you who attended our closing dinner on Wednesday, September 30^th, you’ll recall Angelo Grande, President-elect of the New York State Retired Teachers Association (NYSRTA), requesting your engagement on H.R. 452 and S. 1025, federal legislation pertaining to student testing. Summaries of those bills can be found by clicking the bill number. Angelo can be reached at aigrande@yahoo.com with any questions.