HEFTY INCREASE FOR MISSOURI TEACHER PENSIONS

Also winning final passage this year was a pension increase for teachers that makes Missouri's teacher retirement system one of the highest paying in the nation. The increase is a hefty 8.7 percent for educators, including those already retired. Recipients must have completed 30 years of teaching to qualify for full benefits.

This pension increase likely puts Missouri's teacher retirement system in the top five nationally, according to officials of the Public School Retirement System of Missouri. "It does put Missouri in the upper echelon ... of pension plans," said the system's Keith Bozarth. "We will be in the forefront."

The state system covers 73,000 active teachers and 23,000 retirees in Missouri. Teachers in the St. Louis and Kansas City school districts have their own separate pension plans.

The bill, which the governor signed into law, allows retiring teachers with at least 30 years of experience in the state system to draw 75 percent of their salary. The average annual pension for teachers who retired last year with 30 to 40 years of experience was $32,400.

For decades it was a commonplace observation to decry low teacher salaries in Missouri and elsewhere. While teaching will never be a vocation to choose in order to become rich, the low compensation is a fact no longer. Measures such as this teachers' pension deal are quite rare in the private sector, if not altogether impossible to find, at least for nine-month jobs with summers off.