January 6, 2003 - Milford Daily News: Peace Corps service will count toward teachers' pensions in Massachusetts

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2003: 01 January 2003 Peace Corps Headlines: January 6, 2003 - Milford Daily News: Peace Corps service will count toward teachers' pensions in Massachusetts

By Admin1 (admin) on Saturday, January 18, 2003 - 10:07 pm: Edit Post

Peace Corps service will count toward teachers' pensions in Massachusetts





Read and comment on this story from the Milford Daily News that Peace Corps service will now count toward teachers' pensions in Massachusetts under a bill former acting Gov. Jane Swift signed into law last week at:

Peace Corps service will count toward teachers' pensions*

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Peace Corps service will count toward teachers' pensions

By Michael Kunzelman
Tuesday, January 7, 2003

BOSTON - Public school teachers will be able to count Peace Corps service toward their pensions under a bill former acting Gov. Jane Swift signed into law last week.

State Sen. David Magnani, the Framingham Democrat who sponsored the bill, said the measure is designed to improve the quality of teaching in the state's schools.

"When you come back (from serving in the Peace Corps), you have much broader experience," he said. "It makes you a much better teacher in the U.S."

Six years ago, the Legislature passed a Magnani-sponsored bill that allowed public school teachers to return to their jobs if they left to teach in the Peace Corps.

Under the new law, which Swift signed last Thursday, public school teachers or guidance counselors will be allowed to count up three years of that Peace Corps service toward their retirement.

"It's one more incentive for teachers to take advantage of the Peace Corps opportunity," Magnani said.

Magnani served in the Peace Corps for three years after he graduated from college, teaching at the University of Sierra Leone from 1968 to 1971. He returned to Africa in 1982 to work as a Peace Corps training director in Kenya.

Jack Flannagan, legislative agent for the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said the law will make it easier for Massachusetts schools to recruit experienced teachers.

"It's valued public service," Flannagan said of the Peace Corps, "and it's particularly valuable for students whose classes will be enriched by their teachers' experience."

Ten other states have offered a similar incentive to Peace Corps veterans, according to Flannagan.

Barbara Daly, a spokeswoman for the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., said about a third of the group's former volunteers who live in Massachusetts worked as teachers in the Peace Corps.

"In my opinion," Daly said of the law, "anything that is going to reduce the barriers to service is a positive step."

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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Special Interests - RPCV Benefits; Special Interests - Teaching

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