The needs of our students are exponentially larger than they were five years ago.”

President of Ed Minnesota—Hastings Lori Best.

Teachers from around the area came to speak with Sen. Judy Seeberger (D-Afton) on Wednesday, April 24 about the difficulties of being a teacher in 2025. In a year marked by budget cuts from a $1.5 million deficit within ISD 200 and a looming $6 billion deficit in the coming biennium at the state level, it is not a time of plenty in many Minnesotan schools.
As to what concerned teachers, their answers were varied from upcoming contract negotiations, pensions, special education funding, earned sick and safe time (ESST) and more.

Contract negotiations
Hastings High School mathematics teacher Patty McNamara spoke first about how upcoming contract negotiations in the district will begin in the next few weeks: “I’m scared to death going into negotiations.” Due to rising healthcare costs, teachers will need to receive raises in order to not functionally receive a pay cut, according to McNamara. In a year defined by budget shortfalls, such an ask might be difficult. “I’m going to lose my young teachers,” said McNamara.

Teacher pensions
Another Hastings High School mathematics teacher Laura Zabel spoke to the many issues surrounding teachers’ pensions, specifically the issues with the current tiered system. According to the Teacher Retirement Association, teacher pensions are broadly split between two tiers: those that were hired before July 1, 1989 (tier 1), and those that were hired after June 30, 1989 (tier 2).
Those tiers define how retirement benefits are accrued as well as the age of retirement among many other factors. The tiered system has been widely criticized for awarding higher benefits to tier 1 teachers over their younger peers.
Sen. Seeberger, who sits on the legislative commission on pensions and retirement, said that the body “recognizes the inequality that was built into the system 35 years ago,” but did not have a solution.
Teachers’ pensions have been underfunded for years, leaving their costs especially burdensome given the looming deficit in the coming biennium.
“The current 60/30 would cost an ongoing $200 million, almost a quarter of a billion dollars which as you know, the state does not have,” said Seeberger.
Several proposals were heard at the capitol in order to come up with that money, including rolling back the free lunch program, which was met with resistance.
Several teachers cited the pension as a key factor in attracting new teachers and a way to counteract the relatively lower salaries teachers receive.
“Frankly when our pay can’t rival that of people in the private sector that have equivalent education, our benefits are usually the things that we also put up there as a real attraction to the career,” said President of Ed Minnesota—Hastings Lori Best.

Special education funding
Special education funding and support of special education teachers was another point of concern for attendees of the listening session. South Washington Instructional Coach Mallory Martin spoke to the overburdened workload of many special education professionals: “Case managing is a full-time job, and teaching is a full-time job, and special education teachers do both.”
It was a point reiterated by Associate Educator Christine Brand who spoke to the revolving door of teachers coming into work in special education who are overworked, burnt out and then quickly leave: “They last for a hot second before they do something else.”
Even beyond special education, whose numbers have grown throughout the years, “The needs of our students are exponentially larger than they were five years ago,” said Best.
This heavy burden on teachers was another issue touched upon at the listening session.
South Washington Elementary School teacher Ona Wilcox spoke to the importance of ESST for teachers, especially as schools cut prep times. “We destroy ourselves,” said Wilcox.
Teachers nodded as Wilcox spoke to putting off seeking medical care for her ankle even as it bothered her. “Wait till summer,” quipped Zabel.
After being told she needed surgery on her ankle, “my first thought was, how am I going to take off more work […] I’m so afraid to take time off to take care of myself, that that was my first thought after hearing that I needed surgery,” said Wilcox.
Sen. Seeberger is the chief author of S.F. 2300, a bill that amends the 2022 ESST bill, raising the minimum number of employees needed to employers to provide ESST from 1 to 15, although that number is subject to change. Sen. Seeberger styled the bill as fixing problems within ESST, comparing it to the exemption for paid-on-call ambulances and fire departments in 2024 but maintained her support for the program: “I’m certainly not rolling back any protects or eliminating sick and safe time or anything like that.”