Minnesota lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have introduced bills to give K-12 teachers a larger pension and earlier access to it with retirement.

To receive their full pension in Minnesota currently, teachers must teach for 30 years and be 65 years old, or retire a few years prior with a smaller pension. Three bills in the state Legislature target early teacher retirees and make early retirement more financially feasible, the bill authors said.

A bipartisan House bill, HF2318, would make teachers eligible for early retirement benefits at 60 years old instead of 62. A Republican-sponsored House bill, HF2329, would allow retirees who are at least 62 to receive their pension without any reductions.

Another bipartisan bill, House File 1582 and Senate File 2000, would make K-12 teachers eligible for an early retirement pension at 60 years old without any reductions to their pensions and require employers to contribute more to all teacher pension plans.

SF2000, which is supported by Minnesota’s teachers union Education Minnesota, is nearly identical to the two other bills but proposes higher employer pension contributions.

SF2000 chief author Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, who used to be a high school teacher, said teachers who put decades of work into supporting Minnesota’s children deserve a fair retirement.

“Being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs in our state. It is more than just teaching the curriculum. It is supporting students,” she said. “These teachers who have been doing this for 30 or 40 years are frustrated, and rightfully so, that after all these years of taking care of our communities’ children, that they can’t have a retirement that supports what they need to just be able to live.”

Some education advocates argue Minnesota is falling behind other states for teacher retirements. In a 2024 national ranking, Forbes ranked Minnesota as the third-best state in the nation for teachers behind Washington and Utah. However, the North Star State was 17th in Forbes’ teacher retirement score ratings.

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said Minnesota needs to invest more in teacher pensions to ensure educators do not switch career paths halfway through.

“There used to be this idea that ‘We can’t pay you what you’re worth, but we could make sure that you have a secure and dignified pension that you can count on,’” she said. “Unfortunately, over time, the value of that retirement has eroded. We need more investment from our states to make sure that our pensions are the promises that were made back then.”

Improving teacher pensions in the state means passing the pension changes in SF2000, Specht said. Changes include increasing the cost-of-living adjustments in the pension and ending the delay for those adjustments to take effect, she added.

With state budget forecasters projecting Minnesota to have a $6 billion budget deficit by the 2028-29 budget cycle, lawmakers say any bill that comes with a high price tag will face scrutiny.

Rep. Mary Frances Clardy, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, said the projected budget deficit and federal government budget cuts are forcing Minnesota legislators to rethink funding priorities even for bipartisan legislation.

HF1582 is expected to cost around $285 million annually and HF2329 around $75 million, according to chief author of HF2318 and HF2329 Rep. Danny Nadeau, R-Rogers.

Money from the general fund would pay for the employer contribution increases, and Nadeau said he hopes to pass HF2201 , which would free up around $85 million through changes to the universal school meals program to help pay for the pensions.

Nadeau said that while there is cost associated with improving teacher pensions, keeping pensions unchanged also has fiscal impact on local school districts.

“Our education system is going to pay for this one way or the other. They’re going to pay for it by teachers staying longer at the higher salaries,” he said. “There’s going to be a cost in class sizes. There’s going to be a cost in athletic fees.”

Gustafson said improving teacher retirement pensions will bring other benefits like saving school districts money by replacing longtime teachers with newer ones at lower salaries.

“Bringing in new teachers means all sorts of good things,” she said. “It’s developing the teachers of our future and the workforce that our schools are looking for and, quite frankly, a lot of those costs for earlier salaries are lower than those who have been working for 30, 40 years.”

All of the bills are awaiting a hearing in their respective committees.

Specht said that if the proposed pension legislation doesn’t pass, Minnesota’s public education system will be weaker.

“If we don’t invest in our educators from our pay, our pensions and better benefits, we’re going to see people choosing other professions and leaving the profession. We can’t have that,” she said. “We have a great public education in the state of Minnesota, but we need to continue to invest in our public school educators so that they continue to stay in our public schools.”