On his way out of the Senate, Sherrod Brown gifted millions of U.S. workers and retirees, including more than 100,000 Ohioans, when he led the effort to pass the Social Security Fairness Act, which was signed into law. This new law repeals policies that penalized workers with a public employee pension who’d also paid into Social Security from other jobs.
As a teacher at Rhodes College and Career High School and an active member of the Cleveland Teachers Union, I’ve been following this bill closely. So many of past and current colleagues will see a real increase to their retirement benefits now that they won’t be stripped of Social Security benefits they earned and paid into. Additionally, while many schools are struggling to stay fully staffed with teachers and other licensed professionals, this change removes a barrier toward recruiting more mid-career professionals into teaching and other public service jobs…