FERPing - It's as bad as it sounds

Back in April 2010 I brought you FERPing. 

The Faculty Early Retirement Program, as the name implies, allows faculty to retire early and then come right back to work. On the surface it creates a lower fiscal burden on local university funding which looks like a cost savings for guys like Milton A. Gordon, who gets $302,042 per year while living rent-free at the El Dorado Ranch. The reality is that it costs tax payers and students statewide more than utilizing the lower paid part-time faculty who, under FERP, are forced out.

Even the Fullerton Observer could see the problem with FERPing.

Now FERPing is back but this time the Orange County Register picked up the story.  As the Register's Timothy Sandoval surmises about one professor, "Kreiner benefits from an obscure California State University program that allows professors and librarians to retire and continue to work part time, collecting both a pension and a paycheck."

The bottom line is simple:  WE PAY MORE.  We get nothing in return.  Students have to pay higher fees and tuition while full-time faculty cash in.

CSU faculty apparently aren't afraid to strut their sense of entitlement either:

"I think it's fair," Kreiner said. "If you work for a place for 40 years and contribute to its growth, you have earned it."
Kreiner said in addition to classes, he advises graduate students and continues to conduct research papers, which adds to the university's reputation. He also notes that he is one of the "founding fathers" of the mechanical engineering department at the school.

FERP is by far the clearest form of pension abuse.  As Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association said to the OC Register, "When someone retires one week and shows up for work on Monday – even if it is part-time work – it is a reflection of a system with a low retirement age."

Many government workers retire from government job "A" and go to work at government job "B".  Then they retire AGAIN and go to work for government job "C".  They do this while collecting multiple pensions.  The double and triple dipping, as it is often referred to, is indicative of a broken retirement system.

People used to retire because they could no longer work productively at a given age, such as 65 or 70.  Now public employees retire simply because they can, some as early as age 38.  Then they skip off to the next public trough until they hit 50 or 55.  Many head to yet the third trough.  And who can blame them for gaming the system...