Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Modesto schools open domestic partner benefits to employees
A story published today by the Modesto Bee reports that Modesto City Schools will soon start offering health benefits to same-sex domestic partners.
The Board of Education on Monday night voted 4-3 to give its 2,900 teachers, administrators and support staff the right to purchase medical, dental, vision, cancer or life insurance for domestic partners. The move will not cost the district anything, because employees get up to $223 a month in their paychecks to buy their own coverage from the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
Critics nonetheless said the benefits will undermine the value of marriage and eventually could drive up insurance rates.
Coverage includes same-sex domestic partners who are over 18 and partners of the opposite sex who are over 62. Partners must declare their relationship by filing an affidavit with the California secretary of state.
The district soon will file paperwork with CalPERS. Employees will be able to purchase benefits for domestic partners on the first day of the following month.
Board members Ricardo Cordova, Odessa Johnson, Gary Lopez and Kate Nyegaard voted to extend benefits to domestic partners. They said the proposal gave the board a chance to practice the values it teaches.
"The question is, do we vote as a board to do as I say and not as I do? Or do we vote to practice what we preach, and that is tolerance and respect and fairness," Nyegaard said.
Board President Connie Chin, as well as members Cindy Marks and Nancy Cline, voted against the proposal, saying it flies in the face of marriage and family values. They noted that 75 percent of Stanislaus County voters approved of Proposition 22, which prohibits the state from recognizing same-sex marriages, in November 2000.
"Providing domestic partner benefits undermines our community's view of marriage by inferring that domestic partners are morally and socially equivalent to marriage," Chin said.
