Every Texan supports SB 7 and the “13th check” it would provide hundreds of thousands of retired Texas educators.
More than 410,000 Texans have already contributed to our communities as dedicated teaching professionals and support staff in our public schools, working long enough (24 years, on average) to qualify for defined-benefit pensions through the Teacher Retirement System (TRS). Many of these retirees worked for school districts that did not pay into Social Security, making the TRS benefit their only retirement income. For those not yet covered by Medicare, rising health care costs pose a significant challenge.
Read our full testimony here.