RE: Using retired teachers as mentors

Thanks for you supportive comments, Nancy.  If the state truly wants to support quality education, and the teachers who provide (and provided) it, then legislation can be passed which would exclude earnings for mentoring from the allowable earnings which do not affect retirement pensions.  They might want to put a cap on it, but certainly a significant amount could qualify.  There's already a sizeable amount for post-retirement earnings allowed; it's at least $22,000/year now.  Another factor might be whether the pay for mentoring would be a negotiable item, subject to union action.  I was also wondering if part (or all) of the funds could come from the existing mentor program.

Jeff Anderson suggested that sufficient mentors might participate on a strictly volunteer basis.  That would be nice, but I suspect not very practical.  Teacher retirement is already pretty meager (especially without any post-retirement medical coverage in most cases), that a little supplemental income would be most welcome as compensation which recognizes the resource in retired teachers.  I might be willing to accept $30-100/hour for on-site interaction with mentoree(s) for a few to several hours a week (that's about $300-2000 per month), but then I am covered by my wife's excellent retirement medical policy.  Others might be satisfied with a small basic income plus the option of group medical coverage, or additonal income.  These things would need to be worked out, but I'm sure a nominal amount could attract a signifcant level of extremely valuable participation.