The rural schools have not over 4% and 34% of all teachers of
the state.
That is, where there is one retirable teacher in service now in rural
schools, in proportion there are at least twenty in cities of the first
class. A large fraction of the counties and some cities of the second
class report no active teachers past age 50.
Retirement direct from service only thus seems to favor the large
cities beyond all reason.

Are the 120 teachers now in service and aged 65 or more, and the
325 aged 60 or more, the real retirement problem?

There are about 6,500 teachers now in service in the state, who are
35 years or more of age. These people have been teaching on an aver- _
age more than ten years. The women have passed the ordinary marry-
ing age. Both the men and the women have passed the age when they
can have much chance of getting established in other work. Most of
these people will stay in teaching as long as they can. They are as
near permanent in their vocation as most any working group in
America, so far as their own plans are concerned. Whatever retire-
ment rights they are ever to get as employees, must come mostly from
the school system.

Where are these 6,500 permanent teachers?
About 1,560 are in cities of the first class.
About 1,300 are in cities of the second class.
About 2,750 are in the smaller cities and towns.
About 900 are in rural schools.
In this connection we must allow for the migration of teachers from
rural to town schools, and from town to city schools.

How many city teachers began teaching in small towns ?
About 25 % of those now teaching in first and second-class cities.

How many city and town teachers began in rural schools?

About 40 % of those now teaching in first and second-class cities.
About 60% of those now teaching in smaller cities and towns.

So a retirement program that would provide for these 6,500 per-
manent teachers on a service basis would be in reality a state-wide
program, which would reach every county and nearly every town. The
same may be said for the 1,900 ex-teachers now aged 65 or more.

How long will these 6,500 permanent teachers be allowed to con-
tinue to earn a living by teaching? They are now aged 35.
50% of them will still be teaching at age 43.
40 % of them will still be teaching at age 45.
15% of them will still be teaching at age 55.
10% of them will still be teaching at age 60.

That is, half of them will be “liquidated” after eight years; and
only one out of ten will hold on until 60, the earliest retirement age.
The earning life of even a “permanent teacher” in Kansas is indeed
short. At least in Kansas schools old age begins at forty; and other
jobs by that time are mostly closed.

It is deemed wholly impractical to put people on old-age retirement
allowances in the forties and the fifties, but school retirement can at
least offer them something to depend upon when retirement age does
come.