PERA Program Designed to Help Rural Schools Has Potential for Abuse

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

A reader messaged me recently about concerns they had in their own local district. The concern centers around who was getting hired (well, re-hired) at their local school district.

For a number of reasons, it’s not feasible to go and check out the reader’s district, but I hung on to the story because it felt like a good learning opportunity to share something I learned about, and it might be a concern you share.

As best as I can tell (there may have been laws that refined or changed the original program), a 2017 law which I link to first below created a program in PERA, the Public Employees Retirement Association, to help get teachers into rural schools.

In order to understand how this works, I have to back up a step. If you are in PERA’s retirement plan, there are a number of rules about working pertaining to the last couple of years leading up to your retirement as well as the time after retirement.

Among those rules are ones that limit the number of hours you can work at your old job (or any other PERA employer—there is no restriction if you work for someone without PERA as a retirement).

The 2017 bill essentially allows some rural school district workers (teachers, bus drivers, kitchen staff) to work without these penalties after retirement. The idea is (and was) to help provide much-needed staff to rural districts by encouraging those who had worked there to rehire and work there again.

The second link below, a PERA handout on this law, gives some more technical detail on the process, including what must happen in order for a school district to take advantage of this program.

The reader that sent me the tip about this voiced the concern that this program in their district was being abused. I.e. the concern was that the district was overplaying a “critical shortage” of help in order to bestow what is a favor on some well-connected individuals.

I could see this being the case. It’s not the first time that connected individuals get plum assignments. I could also see this law being a good way to encourage experienced teachers, drivers, and kitchen help to stick around in districts where hiring is a big challenge.

Which way it goes depends on a whole lot of things. Some programs are like that. Potential to help and potential to be abused.

If you see this happen in your schools and have concerns about it, I would recommend taking them first to your local school superintendent, following up with the school board if you don’t feel like your concerns were properly addressed.

https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb17-1176

https://content.copera.org//wp-content/uploads/2024/11/critical-shortage-provision-summary.pdf

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

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