Co-op’s Erin Michaud: “No teacher should have to choose between paying their bills and seeing a doctor.” Differences between current insurance plan for educators and proposed state plan NHFT is requesting, in a writeup provided by the teachers union. Over 100 New Haven public school tea chers and supporters showed up to Monday’s Board of Education meeting to back the teachers union’s push for the district to lower educators’ healthcare costs — by moving teachers onto a state health insurance plan. Advocates for the requested change, which is part of negotiations around a new teachers union contract, argued that the move is essential to prevent local teachers from having to pick between paying their bills and visiting a doctor. Mayor Justin Elicker, who is also a voting member on the Board of Education, responded that moving teachers onto the state health insurance plan would be too expensive and would create an “imbalance,” because educators are currently on the same health plan as every other city employee. After weeks of negotiations, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) and the New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT) have a mediation scheduled for Tuesday to come up with a new tentative bargaining agreement that would go into effect on July 1, 2026. The union and school district have until Dec. 17 to come up with a tentative agreement before an arbitrator will step in and make a decision. “Take Seriously Our Request To Look At Our Health Care. It Is Not Good” Cross’s Charles O’Donnell: “I cannot survive another ten years to get to top step.” Over a dozen educators spoke up at Monday’s meeting at King/Robinson School to inform the Board of Education and school-district leaders of teachers’ concerns with the current health insurance plan offered to educators through the city. They also spoke up with concerns about current teacher wages that they said don’t keep up with inflation. Wilbur Cross science teacher Charles O’Donnell said, “I am frustrated because adjusting for inflation my income has dropped by about $2,000 since I started teaching in 2019.” He said that he is in his mid-30s and is raising young children. He wants to continue teaching in New Haven but worries that while the district consistently asks teachers to “do more with less,” it is not working toward a new contract that will reflect a “serious commitment” to fairness and that will ensure educators can afford to stay. “I love Wilbur Cross but I do not know if I can remain here,” he concluded. “Take seriously our request to look at our health care. It is not good. Please take seriously that we are running out of the ability to afford to work here if we are in the stages of life that I find myself in. I cannot survive another ten years to get to top step. It is not tenable.” Veteran Co-op teacher Theresa Purdie testified Monday that New Haven educator salaries are not competitive and the city’s health insurance option is not affordable. “Teachers in New Haven earn thousands less than colleagues in nearby towns while also paying more for basic medical care,” she said. Purdie and other educators emphasized that the district’s “painful” inequities in wages and health insurance are driving educators away. “Across the district teachers are skipping doctors visits. They’re delaying tests and avoiding specialists because they simply cannot afford it,” Purdie said. She said she’s talked with educators who have had to forego critical medical procedures because they could not afford the out-of-pocket cost. “As a result some of these coworkers come to work in pain and are also ill,” she added. Meanwhile, others resort to paying with credit cards, meaning they must pick between financial hardship or risking their health. This is the quiet reality of the schools, Purdie said. “When educators cannot afford to stay healthy, everyone loses,” she said. “Meanwhile the city has received large rebates from insurance carriers for years. These rebates never lowered our cost. While the city saves, teachers pay the price. Higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. That’s not equity, that’s an imbalance and it’s an injustice.” Educators emphasized time and again Monday that health insurance should not be a barrier for staff. They said that, by switching to the state plan, teachers would have no deductibles, predictable and manageable co-pays, and real access to care. Many including Purdie argued that choosing the state health plan is choosing recruitment and retention. Erin Michaud, a Co-op educator who has taught for 25 years, testified that when she started teaching full time in 2000, her salary was slightly over $26,000. At the time medical benefits were only for employees and spousal benefits weren’t an option. It took Michaud 23 years to reach the district’s max pay step as a result of dealing with step and salary freezes, and at one point being pushed backwards on the pay scale. This year, Michaud said, she takes home less than last year despite being on the max pay step because of the current high deductible health plan. “My salary went up slightly this year but my pay went down, not because I’m working less, I’m working harder than ever, but because medical insurance costs went up,” she explained. Last week Michaud learned that the co-pay for a prescription of hers increased from $75 every three months to now $680 — for the same prescription under the same insurance plan. She said that educators are not asking for special treatment. Instead, they’re looking for fairness. “No teacher should have to choose between paying their bills and seeing a doctor,” she concluded. Second year Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) special education teacher Laura Cunningham also pushed for the district to increase teacher salaries, particularly for first-year educators. Since she has a master’s degree, he starting salary at NHPS was $54,000. She said that this means she takes home under $3,000 a month in take-home pay. She said that she pays roughly $1,500 out of pocket over the first few months of the year for medical care. She said that she’s now in medical debt with the current health plan because “even with HSA deposits from the city, it feels like I don’t have any health insurance coverage until I meet my deductible.” This makes her less likely to seek medical care. As a 35-year-old, she fears she can’t afford to ever start a family while working for NHPS. She concluded that she recently received a recruitment email from Hartford Public Schools offering $62,000 to educators with a bachelor’s and $70,000 for those with a master’s. While she’s declined Hartford’s offer for now, she concluded, “it will be harder each year for me to say no to those recruitment emails” Several other educators spoke up about concerns they hope the new contract will address like caseload caps for special education teachers and school counselors, support for veteran educators that mentor new staff, requests for more academic freedom, and smaller class size caps. These changes educators said would help to address the “mental cost” of being an educator in New Haven. Elicker: “City Does Not Have Enough Money” To Fund Teachers Union’s Healthcare Demand Elicker at Monday’s meeting: State insurance plan not affordable for city. In response to Monday’s testimony’s about health insurance, prescription rebates, and other contract-related requests made during public comment, Mayor Justin Elicker responded that he deeply values educators. He said the city and school district have been “killing our ourselves” trying to get more funding for the schools. Switching to the state health plan would make an “imbalance,” he said, because educators are currently on the same health plan as every other city employee. He said when the city consultants did the math, they found it is too expensive to transition to the state health insurance plan for teachers. Teachers union President Leslie Blatteau reported Monday that the city currently pays $40.8 million for its four-tiered health plan, while the cost of the state plan would be $41.1 million. Currently, 52 school districts in Connecticut offer the state health plan to their employees including Derby, Branford, Bridgeport, New London and West Haven. In addition, the New Haven Housing Authority employees participate in the state plan. In response to educators’ claims that the city is financially benefitting “off of our backs,” as one teacher put it, with its collecting of prescription rebates, Elicker said: “Simply put, the city does not have enough money to fund what the teachers union is demanding regarding health care. The teachers union is asking for a special plan that is different than the healthcare plan that every other city employee is currently on. The teachers union proposal would cost millions more, which the city just cannot afford. We continue to be open to practical and affordable changes to health care options available to teachers, but we also must be realistic about what we can pay for.” He continued, “At the same time, it’s important to note that we will never be able to provide our teachers with the contract they deserve or our students with the education they deserve so long as we continue to be chronically underfunded by the state… No one can tell me that it still costs $11,525 to educate a child – which is the baseline foundation aid amount that the state continues to operate from when it comes to education funding — an amount that hasn’t changed since 2013.” Elicker added that the city’s prescription rebates have been included, publicized and reported in the city’s monthly financial reports for decades. “The prescription rebates are reinvested to help pay for our employees’ health care, providing direct savings to employees that lower the cost of their health care,” he said. “If the rebates were not reinvested into their health care, our teachers would be paying more for their plans and premiums.” In FY24-25, the city received $9,410,295 in prescription rebates. In FY23-24, it received $6,262,604. These numbers include the cumulative prescription rebates from all municipal unions and are “all invested in paying for employee healthcare.” NHFT stickers handed out at Monday’s meeting. Elm City Montessori teacher Alejandra Corona Ortega (second from left) with friends: Ask for Board to tell educators and community how to support its state legislative efforts for increasing schools funding. The post Teachers Make Closing Push For Affordable Health Care appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less