Retirement in Education: The Economic and Social Functions of the Teachers' Pension

Abstract

IN APRIL 1891, Journal of Education published a symposium on teachers' pensions, first national attention issue had received. The honor of opening symposium went to U.S. Commissioner of Education W.T. Harris, who presented case against pensions -even then, a minority view, shared by only six of fifteen symposium participants. A general system of teachers' pensions, Harris argued, would bring undesirable persons into profession, prevent formation of habits of thrift, and reduce salaries, which were, Harris emphasized, rising. Consequently, Commissioner said, the teacher with an equal amount of thrift or personal economy may provide for his old age just as well as mass of community. (1) This last remark must have seemed as hollow to public school teachers as it did to a number of symposium participants, for at no time in half century after 1870 did teachers receive more than minimal compensation. Chicago teachers argued before Board of Education in 1895 that their salaries were much same as they had been in 1877. (2) A deflationary economy eased teachers' plight somewhat through most of late nineteenth century, but after 1900 this protection was not available. In 1905, E.G. Kimball, President of District of Columbia Teachers' Annuity and Aid Association, appealed to Andrew Carnegie for subsidy. The situation he depicted might have been of any of hundreds of school districts across nation-low salaries, a rising cost of living, a heavily female population bound to city by family ties and thus unable to pursue higher salaries elsewhere. Several years later, National Education Associa-