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In a rare political display, Stafford County teachers and school employees are rallying to protest the loss of free health insurance.
At stake is a benefit teachers and staff have enjoyed for at least 30 years.
Organized protests are scheduled for Stafford County School Board meetings in January. Teachers have formed a grass-roots committee, Save Our Benefits, to alert employees who haven't been following the issue. The Stafford Education Association held emergency meetings at schools this week to coordinate its own opposition efforts.
"It's surprising to me how much ire it's raised in the sense of fairness," said Mary Bland, a math teacher at Colonial Forge High School. "I would have easily thought people would've sat back and said, 'Oh well.'"
Currently, the school district pays 100 percent of the health-care premium for individual school employees.
Employees with spouse, child or family coverage are not so lucky.
This year, employees with family coverage are forking over $626 a month. Employees with spouse coverage are paying $409.
To offset the hefty premiums for this group, a committee of school employees suggested to the School Board that individual workers start to make a premium contribution next year.
According to district estimates, individual teachers would pay $40 a month, or $480 a year, to keep their current plan. Several less expensive plans with fewer benefits would be introduced.
Charles Woodruff, director of finance for Stafford County public schools, said he understands why teachers are upset over losing a benefit. But allowing free insurance to continue has led to a grossly out-of-balance system, he said.
"When any group of people pay nothing, things get out of balance," Woodruff said. "Nobody gets free insurance. You don't get free car insurance, you don't get free life insurance, you don't get free homeowner's insurance.
"The whole concept of insurance is to protect yourself against some calamity that you couldn't otherwise afford," he continued. "So you want to get as many people in the insurance pool as possible."
Still, the possibility of losing free insurance has rankled workers. Raises are never a guarantee, and they fear that any raise they receive will be outpaced by the premium increase. Also, some resent being asked to foot the bill for the minority of people who have more than single coverage.
About 1,900 teachers and employees have individual coverage, while only 226 have family, child or spouse coverage.
"They're trying to guilt the vast majority into thinking we need to take a sacrifice for the people we need to help," said Tom Clark, a Stafford High drama teacher.
A survey conducted last month by the Stafford Education Association found that 66 percent of 947 respondents preferred to keep the current coverage and cost.
Karen Clore, president of the Stafford Education Association, said her organization is sympathetic to the plight of employees with family coverage. But she thinks the School Board should turn to the county--and not employees--for extra money.
Clark agreed that Save Our Benefits members will be pacified if the School Board makes a serious effort to ask the Stafford Board of Supervisors for assistance with family, child and spouse coverage. The school district's estimate of this cost is about $1.5 million.
Employees would be willing to pay if they know the School Board has stood up for them, "because then they've fought the good fight and didn't get what they wanted," Clark said. "But just redistributing the cost to another group we think, in effect, it's a teacher tax. You're taking my $40 and giving it to someone else who needs it."
Teachers are not alone in losing free insurance, though. Stafford's Board of Supervisors is weighing whether to ask county workers to start paying premiums, too.
In every neighboring district, teachers already contribute to their insurance premiums, sometimes at higher rates than Stafford's proposal.
Woodruff has said reducing family and spouse premiums will help recruit veteran teachers who are turned off by the high cost.
Also, new teachers expect to pay a premium, so a $12 to $40 monthly fee won't be a surprise, he said. Stafford schools distributed a survey to gauge support and opposition to the health-care proposal. Woodruff said most respondents wanted a variety of health-care plans to choose from, something the proposed changes will provide. Now, only one plan is available.
Clark, Clore and Bland think the school district's survey was flawed. Bland, a former statistician with the Internal Revenue Service, has used several questions as examples of how not to word a survey with her AP statistics class.
"I was insulted they would put out the questions they put out," Bland said. "Their questions were really inflammatory and really pitted those who are on a single policy against those on a family policy."
Although ultimately it's a School Board decision, Woodruff thinks the proposed change works to help all employees by offering choice and lower premiums for people who have been paying prohibitive amounts.
"Insurance is for the common good, and the common good is, we need to make it affordable for everybody," he said.
The School Board is expected to vote on the health-care proposal at its Jan. 27 meeting.
So far, Woodruff said, only 12 people have addressed the School Board at recent meetings in opposition to the proposal.
"We have 3,500 employees plus, and we've heard from way, way, way less than 1 percent of those people," Woodruff said.
To reach KELLY HANNON: 540/374-5436 khannon@freelancestar.com