NorthWest Florida Republican

Retire early and get a huge bonus to go. Not only that but you get paid your retirement once you retire. That sounds like what many people would love to have and many are looking forward to.

What if I told you that there are some in Florida who are doing this very thing then getting rehired on for the same pay or even a raise just 30 days after starting to collect their retirement? Ready to sign up? I would have if I had known that something like this would happen years after I signed on. I bet you would too.

That is exactly what is happening in our Education system. Not only are these educators retiring but they are unretiring not long after starting to receive their checks from the state pension funds. It is called the DROP program and has been around for years.

One of the best examples right here in Okaloosa is Bob Richburg, President of Northwest Florida State College . Retired early and got a great bonus. One that many people here would love to have. Started receiving his pension of over $8k a month then got rehired back at the college with a 3% raise.

Of course it is all justified.

“Thanks to the DROP program, we’ve been able to maintain a top-notch, quality staff,” he said. “I would hate for any law to deny the college the use of experienced people, just like I would not want to deny the military the ability to hire top-notch personnel.”

Richburg said in his own case, if he had not been rehired at Northwest Florida State College, he would have sought employment as a college president in another state.

That would have obligated the college to take the risk of hiring a new president, who, Richburg theorized, would have been brought in at a higher salary than the one he secured when he was rehired by the college’s Board of Trustees.

“They elected to keep me as president based on their expectations of my future,” he said. – NWF Daily News

This assumes that Richburg would have been better than any other candidate that could have come to Northwest Florida State College. Possibly at a lower salary.

You may already know Bob Richburg. He hired State Representative Ray Sansom for that sweetheart Vice President position at the College. After all Ray Sansom did it was the least that Richburg could do. Maybe the Board of Trustees was thinking of more state money when they rehired Richburg because of Sansom.

The imagination runs wild.

Either way it just illistrates the abuse of the DROP system to the point of costing the Florida Education program millions of dollars.

Gaetz, R-Niceville, said he, along with Sen. Mike Fasano, is sponsoring Senate Bill 1182 “to end what I consider to be the abuse of the DROP system.”

He estimates closing the DROP loophole would save taxpayers approximately $100 million.

And it keeps those who are trying to get into education as a career from advancing.

It is about darn time that someone does something about waste of money. I’m all for everyone to get what they deserve but this goes beyond that and rewards them for nothing. All the while, shorting our children out of resources for education.

On top of this, they want to raise your taxes.