To know Judith Mathews is to love her! A retired Texas public school educator, Judith, who has the vivacity of a twenty-year old, hasn’t taken retirement sitting down. In fact, when friends ask Judith if she still plans to be working and helping people when she is 80 years old, her answer is a resounding, “If I can walk and I can talk, then YES!”
Recently, the Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA) had the opportunity to visit with Judith at the Johnson City Library, where she tutors adults who want to learn to speak, read, and write the English language. Additionally, she helps her students study for the United States citizenship exam. Sometimes, she even helps them find employment after they successfully pass their test, a pursuit she finds “extremely fulfilling.”
Judith explained that being a teacher was always what she wanted to do. When she was in the second grade, she told her classroom teacher that she would become a teacher, too! “It’s an inborn trait,” she explains, and unlike many Texas educators, she is the only teacher in her family. At one point, she was offered a scholarship to study medicine and become a doctor, but she didn’t want to do that, adding that, “being a teacher, you’re everything!”
Judith, who has a master’s degree in Education, has taught English as a second language since the beginning of her career, which included positions in the Rio Grande Valley and Marble Falls, among others.
Judith retired from education in 2005 when her spouse became ill with cancer. At the time, she knew her income would be smaller due to an earlier retirement, but she felt her annuity was enough to get by on.
Like many retired Texas educators, she is now greatly affected by the increased costs of goods and services due to inflation. She’s also subject to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), which eliminates any benefits she would be eligible to receive from Social Security.
Judith also has Parkinson’s disease and has found creative ways to maintain her flexibility and strength while also supplementing her modest but reliable $1,200 monthly annuity from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS).
For example, Judith makes jewelry, including earrings, hat pins, and bracelets, as well as keychains and lapel pins, and also does diamond painting. Through her tutoring of adult English-language learners, Judith can earn $20 per hour. Though her tutoring sessions may only last for one or two hours per week, the extra income has been helpful, allowing her to buy a tank of gas or pay a bill.
In September 2023, Judith was pleasantly surprised to receive the much-discussed $7,500 stipend issued to TRS annuitants who are aged 75 or older. As TRTA members know, this stipend was approved through Senate Bill 10 during the 88th regular legislative session and paid for in full by the Texas Legislature with the budget surplus.
Judith also heard about Proposition 9 on the news—the constitutional amendment to provide cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to thousands of TRS retirees—but was skeptical about its passage.
Still, Judith shared the news with all her friends, family members, students, and members of the local community, asking for their support of Prop 9 in the November 2023 General Election. She was thrilled when it passed, and received a COLA of 4 percent which began in January 2024. “We needed that help,” Judith says. “I’m very lucky!”
More than half of all TRS retirees had never received a COLA before Prop 9’s passage. The last one passed in 2013 but was only provided to those who retired before September 2004. Judith’s income, like hundreds of thousands of retired Texas educators, had remained stagnant for 20 years.
When TRTA asked Judith what the stipend and COLA have meant to her, she said it’s been “huge in my life!” She explained that things she had been putting off—dental care, a lift chair to aid in her mobility, medical bills—were finally able to be realized. She also was able to purchase more for Christmas for her grandchildren than in years past. She was overjoyed to be able to watch the looks on their faces when they opened their presents during a holiday party at her apartment.
Judith herself is a gift—to the many students she has helped throughout her career and during her retirement and in her community. In fact, you will often hear Judith telling folks that “everyone has a gift to share!”
One of Judith’s adult ESL students, Chadarat Summers, who goes by the nickname “Ni,” told TRTA that Judith taught her to write. “We started from a, b, c.” The two have formed a long-lasting friendship. “Judith is like a mother to me,” Ni added.
Originally from Thailand, Ni has been in the U.S. for 8 years and is now a citizen after receiving tutoring from Judith. “I’m so thankful,” Ni says.
Judith wants her fellow retirees to know that there are many ways to give back, by donating time to local food banks, volunteering at their local library, helping out at animal shelters—and much more!
“You have to keep living,” she says, “don’t sit around and watch TV!”
Many TRTA members volunteer across the state, contributing more than 4,609,000 volunteer hours in 2023 alone. We’re sure many members would agree with Judith that giving back “keeps you younger!”
TRTA and its members are grateful to Texas voters for passing Prop 9 with more votes than any other proposition on the ballot. The retirees that have been helped are a lot like Judith—they never stop teaching, they never stop learning, and they continue to give back in any way that they can to their communities. Texas educators are a true gift to the state, and Prop 9 changed their lives.
