Retiring on next to nothing: NEA campaigns for repeal of two Social Security rules that reduce retired educators to poverty. (News).(Brief Article)

Back in the late 1980s, a colleague warned Maine teacher Junita Drisko that she'd "be sorry" if she didn't pay attention to two provisions in the Social Security law that could reduce her retirement income.

"I was too busy to listen," recalls Drisko, who teaches English and journalism at Bangor High School. "I was very preoccupied with creating lesson plans and correcting papers."

Fast forward to the 2001 NEA Representative Assembly, where Drisko found herself addressing 9,000 fellow delegates about these same two provisions, the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision.

Drisko's passionate speech prompted the delegates to pass a new business item mandating that NEA "develop and financially support a grassroots coalition" to educate state and local affiliates on the need to "work toward the elimination of the GPO and WEP."

That campaign, now …