By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

WINONA, Minn. – When elementary teacher Matt Reuter returned to work in 2011 after a tour in Afghanistan as a U.S. Air Force reservist, he received a peculiar welcome.

Reuter’s employer, Winona Area Public Schools, greeted him with a bill for $11,300 – the cost of a substitute teacher to cover in his absence.

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An obscure state law passed in 2004 allowed school districts to pass the expense of hiring a temporary teacher to educators who are deployed overseas as service members, the PostBulletin.com reports.

Laws in Minnesota and numerous other states obligate public employers to pay the difference between an employee’s regular salary and their military wages. But in Minnesota, public schools can deduct the cost of a substitute from the payout, the news site reports.

EAGnew.org advocates for fiscal responsibility and smart spending during tough economic times, but docking the wages of military members fighting to preserve our freedom is just plain wrong. We certainly hope Winona school officials imposed the costs to instigate a change in the law, and not simply because they could.

Regardless, Reuter, a single father of two young boys, set out to change the unfair practice, and began speaking with elected officials and colleagues to highlight the problem.

“Nobody could believe that there was a law like that in place,” Reuter told the PostBulletin.com.

Eventually, with the help of fellow Goodview teacher Katy Smith – Minnesota’s 2011 Teacher of the Year – Reuter got the attention of Gov. Mark Dayton, who helped to quickly change the law.

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Reuter, however, was still out $11,300.

Last month, Dayton pointed out Reuter’s situation at the National Education Association’s annual conference, where numerous teachers from across the country vowed to help raise money to cover the expense.

Today, he’s expected to receive a check for $13,000 at an event at Winona City Hall.

“I never went into this asking for the money back. I never did,” Reuter told the PostBulletin.com. “I knew that changing the law was going to help other people.”