The plan also allowed teachers to retire with a 1.55 percent multiplier if their combined years of service and age totaled 80. The multiplier determines the monthly pension received based on time employed and salary.

Approximately 55,000 teachers in Michigan were eligible for retirement under the plan. To take advantage of the incentives, retirees had to file by June 11, and the retirements take effect between July 1 and Sept. 1.

Analyses by the nonpartisan state House and Senate fiscal agencies assumed 50 percent, or about 27,500, of eligible teachers would take the package.

As of Monday, only 17,100 teachers, or about 31 percent of those eligible, had filed to retire, said Tiffany Brown, Granholm’s spokeswoman.

However, this number is not final, Brown said.

About 90 percent of teachers likely will be replaced, creating about 15,000 new jobs in the state that could be filled by recent college graduates, said Kathryn Summers, analyst with the Senate Fiscal Agency.

Under the assumed 50 percent retirement rate, about 25,000 jobs would have been created, Summers said.

Although the program still will benefit some graduates, the retirement shortfall will keep the job market tight, said Sharif Shakrani, MSU education professor and co-director of the Education Policy Center at MSU.

“Especially for (MSU) graduates … (the small number of retirements) will reduce the number of people who will be able to obtain teaching jobs in Michigan,” Shakrani said.

Typically, schools begin hiring in June. But this year, because schools are uncertain how many new teachers are needed, hiring has been delayed and has pushed a lot of student graduates out of the state, Shakrani said.

“(Schools) have not given these students a definitive word whether they are hired or not,” he said. “Some students who do not have any ties that they need to stay in Michigan, they would grab at the first job offer they get. They can’t afford to wait.”

Although she hopes the MPSERS amendments will help her find a job in the state, elementary education senior Erin Margolis said she is not counting on staying in Michigan.

“I would hope (to find a job in Michigan),” she said. “(But) if I can get a job, I’ll get it wherever.”
The number of retiring teachers is lower than anticipated, but the amendments still achieve the state’s aims, Brown said.

“Our goal was two-fold: Achieve savings for schools and create job opportunities for new teachers, and we’ve done that,” Brown said.

Although the number of jobs created likely will be much lower than anticipated, there still are 15,000 jobs in the state for graduates that would not have existed without this incentive package, said Suzanne Wilson, chairwoman of MSU’s Department of Teacher Education.

“The big headline is that there will be a lot more opportunities for our graduates to get jobs in Michigan than there have been in the last few years,” Wilson said. “I know we have a lot of our graduates who are applying for those jobs, and we suspect we will have a lot who will get those jobs in the state.”