You can help rescue our school systems -

by teaching those who are older than you.

If you have relatives and friends who are retirement age, let them know they can increase their generous donations to our schools by around 20 percent in a way that will never cost them a penny.

Be advised this article may tax your patience. (Just making a pun!) Almost a million North Carolinians are 73 years old and older.  If they worked and saved money in an IRA or 401-k during their lifetimes, they may be donors to your increasingly cash-starved school system.

Many of you may be too young to know this, but when you reach 73 years of age you become subject to an IRS regulation that says you must begin to make what is called a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your IRA or 401-k (your lifetime retirement savings accounts). Many of the more than one million North Carolinians in this category have been supporters of graceful efforts to help others all of their lives. They know your school system, and, because of tax law, could donate to your school in a way that would increase their donation by about 20 percent - without additional cost to them.

And yet, they do not know they have this option.

Let me teach you how to teach them. There may be a taxing pop quiz at the end of this… just kidding!

While your older relatives and friends were working, if they had wisely arranged with their employer to take part of their paycheck (for example, $200 per month) and put it into savings/investment account, their annual W-2 form would not report those earnings as income.  Month after month, they had no withholding or taxes on those earnings. And month after month, the interest or capital gains that those saved dollars earned (for example, 4 percent per year) was also not taxed as it compounded. Now that they have reached age 73, they are required to take some of those accumulated savings—the RMD—and pay taxes on it.

Someday this will apply to you, too. A simple example: let’s assume you are a newly graduated teacher starting work in a North Carolina school system at age 24 in the 2025/26 school year, hired for the normal starting wage of $42,542. Like many teachers in North Carolina, you know the state’s starting salary ranks 39th among all states in America.

Set aside your anger at that low pay for a moment and focus on the bright side of what I am about to tell you. If you start teaching at age 25 and put $200 out of each monthly paycheck into an IRA or 401-k savings account, when you retire at age 65, your savings account will have around $350,000 in it (independent of any other savings you might have)! Good for you for planning ahead.

For the sake of this teaching example, assume now you’re 73 years of age, and that since retirement you have been able to live on your pension, social

security, and other savings and have not touched all of that earned but yet un-taxed money. And as a birthday present, Uncle Sam comes around and says “O.K., we let you off the hook on paying income tax on those deposits of $200.00 per month for 40 years. Now, each year you must withdraw a minimum amount from the $350,000 you accumulated tax free. And we are going to collect the taxes on that annual withdrawal as if it’s earned income. ARGH.

These federal and state income taxes on that RMD will add around $2,100 to your normal taxes year after year.

Bad news, right?

But wait! You can be a legal tax evader while helping the school system, your church, your local YMCA, or other similar organizations. If the organization you donate to is a qualified charity, you can take some or all that Required Minimum Distribution, donate it to your charity, and never pay taxes on it. The charity gets the full value of your donation, you do not pay taxes on your RMD, and the charity does not either! All the money that would have gone to Uncle Sam goes to the charity.

If you are involved in local schools in any way, you can circulate this article to your network and ask them to read it and pass it on to any of the one million North Carolinians over 73 years of age to show them how to help our schools cope with the recent devastating funding cuts at the state and federal level. And don’t forget to tell your relatives and friends.

The kids need you to be not just generous, but role model smart. Can they count on you?

Dr. Francis P. Koster is a retired pediatric healthcare administrator and the President of The Optimistic Futurist's partner organization, The Pollution Detectives, Inc., a not-for-profit that lends meters and gauges to folks who want to make sure their kids’ schools are safe and optimal for learning. Learn more on the website or send an email to Dr. Francis P. Koster.

A Simple Step to Increase Learning:  Borrow from The Pollution Detectives, Inc.'s Lending Library

Do you experience asthma, allergies, headaches, or difficulty concentrating?  Frequent viral or bacterial infections?

Illnesses like these - and worse - can stem from a common source:  pollution in your indoor environment.

If you are like most Americans, 90 percent of your daily activities occur indoors, where pollutants can be as much as 5 times more concentrated than outdoors. The sources of indoor pollution, such as volatile chemicals, excessive moisture, lead in the drinking water, or exposure to radon, to name a few, can dramatically lower well-being, causing poor performance, absenteeism, and even life-threatening health conditions.

The Pollution Detectives, Inc. has the expertise and the equipment to help you manage many forms of indoor pollution. Without charge, the 501(c)3 nonprofit provides technical assistance and a variety of devices to survey your home, school, or workplace. Our indoor air monitors, thermal cameras, lead-in-water meters, refrigerant leak detectors, and radon meters are technologically advanced but simple to use.

Our nonprofit has experience working with a wide range of community institutions, including schools, fitness centers and healthcare clinics. Out of more than 850 sampled academic locations, we found that 40 percent possess indoor air conditions that lessen student achievement by at least one letter grade.

If you are interested in borrowing equipment or learning more, please follow a link below, visit the website, or contact Dr. Francis P. Koster at fkoster@ thepollutiondetectives.org.

Indoor Air Quality Monitor

Poor indoor air quality can have a surprisingly wide range of health effects, such as asthma and allergies, infectious disease, headaches, fatigue and dizziness. One little-known, but especially undesirable, health effect comes from a room that feels too “stuffy.”  In these conditions, your mental abilities are lessened, and learning is slowed.

Breathing clean air indoors isn’t just a comfort—it’s essential to overall well-being.

Learn more

Borrow Indoor Air Monitors

Radon Meter

Think you are a NONsmoker? Even small amounts of radon in your home, school, or workplace impact you much like a daily pack of cigarettes. Unlike smoke, however, radon is not detectable with human senses.  It is invisible, odorless, and tasteless, making testing a critical step toward preventing harm to your family, friends and coworkers.

Learn More

Borrow a Radon Meter

Moisture Meter

Excessive indoor moisture contributes to a variety of undesirable conditions. Mold and mildew trigger asthma–a leading cause of absenteeism at work and school. And bacteria and other pathogens can cause serious infections. Our hand-held moisture meter helps you easily and accurately identify moisture issues to better protect yourself, your kids, and your colleagues.

Learn More

Borrow a Moisture Meter