The 1941 School Retirement Bill

Legislative Bulletin No. 5
November, 1940 Series of 1941

To ALL THOSE INTERESTED IN SCHOOL RETIREMENT:

The Legislative Council of the Kansas Legislature on November 15,
1940, approved a school retirement bill and submitted it for the con-
sideration of the 1941 session of the Legislature. This bill is the culmina-
tion of years of work on teacher retirement by legislators, patrons and
teachers.

The movement for teacher retirement in Kansas began as early
as 1900, but it received its present impetus only three years ago. At
that time a survey of conditions among school employees of the state
indicated not only the need for adequate retirement of teachers in an
agricultural state, but also the special problems facing any plan for
state-wide retirement in Kansas. Work since the publication of the sur-
vey in 1938 has moved constantly forward, and advancement has been
by progressive stages.

The 1939 Bill

A bill, largely drafted by the educators of the state, was introduced
in the senate and the house of the Kansas Legislature in 1939. Though
the bill did not reach the floors of the houses, the senate passed a reso-
lution instructing the Legislative Council to submit a retirement bill by
December, 1940, for the consideration of the 1941 Legislature.

The Legislative Council Works on Retirement

In the fall of 1939, the Legislative Council invited the Kansas State
Teachers Association to offer suggestions for the bill which it had been
instructed to draft under Senate Resolution No. 22. The Legislative
Committee of the teachers association offered as its best suggestion
the retirement bill which had been introduced in the Legislature in 1939.

In the spring of 1940 the Legislative Council instructed its Educa-
tion Committee to draft a measure carrying substantially the benefits
of the 1939 bill, but providing for reserve features. Such a bill was
drafted in the summer of 1940 by Rep. Marion Beatty of Topeka with
K.S.T.A. counsel, and was submitted to the Legislative Council at its
August, 1940, meeting.

The 1940 Bill and Its Cost

At the August meeting of the Legislative Council the Beatty bill
on school retirement was referred to the Research Department of the
Legislative Council for a study of the probable cost of the measure to
the state. By the last of October the Research Department reported
that the cost to the state would be in the neighborhood of $700,000 a
year, a sum which appeared to the Education Committee of the Legisla-
tive Council too large for ready adoption by the legislature.

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