As Virginia debates how to address persistent teacher shortages, one solution is hiding in plain sight: Stop pushing experienced teachers out of the classroom.
Virginia isn’t just struggling to recruit new educators; it is losing its most effective ones, veteran teachers. Across the commonwealth, school divisions are working to fill vacancies. Yet at the same time, an overlooked feature of the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) creates a powerful incentive for veteran educators to leave the classroom just as they reach their peak.
After 30 years in the classroom, a teacher reaches a financial crossroads, becoming eligible for full retirement. Stay on the job, and they continue earning a salary while contributing to a pension they have already earned. Retire, however, and they can collect that pension immediately while taking a new job in the private sector or a private school. In practice, leaving often means a considerable raise.
The result is predictable: Virginia loses decades of experience, mentorship and institutional knowledge only to spend more time recruiting and training less-experienced replacements.
A more practical alternative is a “retire and stay” approach, allowing retirement-eligible teachers to collect their earned VRS pension while continuing to teach full-time in their current classrooms.
Legislators should replace Virginia’s restrictive “return to work” laws with a streamlined “retire-and-stay” model. Eliminating waiting periods and narrow eligibility will allow us to treat veteran teachers as school cornerstones.
To keep the policy fiscally responsible, participants would freeze their current salary and stop making additional retirement contributions. School divisions would no longer make employer contributions, currently more than 14% of payroll.
This structure changes the incentives without increasing costs. Teachers see higher take-home pay by no longer contributing 5% of their salary, while districts reduce payroll expenses tied to retirement contributions.
Critics may view this as “double-dipping,” but that label overlooks how pensions actually work. These benefits are deferred compensation — earned, vested and already built into the system’s long-term obligations. Whether a teacher collects that pension in a classroom or in a private-sector job, the cost to VRS is the same.
The real difference is what the public receives in return. Under current policy, Virginia often pays that cost while losing a highly effective educator. Under a retire-and-stay model, schools retain experienced teachers, strengthen mentorship for new hires, and reduce turnover, all while lowering operational costs.
For a teacher with 30 years of experience earning $60,000, retiring but staying in the classroom adds roughly $3,000 in pre-tax income by no longer contributing to VRS. Combining their pension with their frozen salary creates a powerful incentive to stay in the classroom.
Meanwhile, the employer no longer makes mandatory retirement contributions, which alone could save a school division about $8,500 annually for that teacher, based on current contribution rates. And retaining the veterans creates better outcomes for our students and more stable school communities.
According to data from the Virginia Department of Education, a large share of Virginia’s teaching workforce has more than 20 years of experience, placing many educators within reach of retirement eligibility. Without changes, the commonwealth risks accelerating the loss of its most experienced teachers at exactly the moment they are needed.
Think of 30-year classroom veterans mentoring new teachers, leading curriculum and anchoring a school community, then walking away, not because they want to, but because the system nudges them out.
Moreover, by rewarding long-term service, the retire-and-stay approach gives early-career teachers a strong reason to remain in Virginia classrooms, knowing that decades of dedication bring both meaningful financial and professional rewards.
If Virginia is serious about addressing its teacher shortage, it must look beyond recruitment and fix the incentives driving experienced educators away. These are the teachers who manage classrooms effectively, reduce disruptions and create stable learning environments, benefits that are difficult to quantify but impossible to replace. The system should reward them for staying where they matter most: in the classroom.
Randy Wright of Richmond was a teacher for 30 years prior to his retirement.