Local teachers added their voices to those of hundreds of state workers who gathered at the state Capitol on Wednesday to protest proposed changes to the state’s troubled pension system.

Workers at the Frankfort rally directed most of their ire toward Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, holding signs calling him a “bully” and declaring themselves to be “sophisticated voters.” That’s a reference to a comment Bevin made to a Lexington business group Monday implying some opponents of the plan “do not have the sophistication to understand what’s at stake.”

Jonathan Vaughn, a political science teacher at Bowling Green High School, was among the attendees. In an interview before the rally, Vaughn said he was making the trip because benefit changes proposed by Bevin could threaten public education in Kentucky.

“This is about making sure that education for our students and future students is viable,” he said.

Scott Gural, an English teacher and BGHS soccer coach, also attended hoping to make his voice heard.

“I feel like somebody’s got to speak up for the pension systems,” he said, adding that his one message to lawmakers considering a pension fix is to “keep considering it and find a better solution.”

After the rally, Gural said the hundreds of protesters showed the breadth of the issue. He recalled comments from a road worker who said the system is not broken, but rather just underfunded.

“It’s not just teachers. It affects many areas of the economy,” he said, adding the rally cemented his opposition to Bevin’s plan. “I just don’t think Gov. Bevin’s pension reform plan is a good solution for the state.”

Kentucky is at least $33 billion short of the money it needs to pay retirement benefits to state workers for the next 30 years.

According to an overview of Bevin’s 505-page proposed bill, new teachers and those who meet the retirement threshold of 27 years of service after July 1, 2018, would be moved into a 401(k)-style plan. Current teachers who meet the 27-year threshold on July 1, 2018, will be allowed to continue accruing benefits under their current plans for up to three years or move into a defined contribution plan.

Other changes call for employees to contribute an additional 3 percent of their salary to fund retiree health care, future cost-of-living increases in benefits for current retirees to be frozen for five years and cost-of-living adjustments for future retirees to begin after five years of retirement.

School districts can continue to pay for up to 30 percent of a retiring member’s sick leave until July 1, 2023, but after that date “payments for sick leave will not be utilized for benefit calculations.”

On Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Jeff Hoover would not say if there are enough votes to pass the reform bill. Hoover indicated that the proposal to cut state workers’ pay by 3 percent could be a roadblock.

Bevin has said the money would help pay for retiree health benefits. But Hoover and Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer told reporters the move was designed not to put more money into the health care fund, but to save the state money.

“That’s a big challenge. Remember, we’re trying to achieve pension savings so that we can minimize budget cuts. It’s one tough vote or another,” Thayer said.

Vaughn said the proposed changes have received criticism from his fellow teachers.

“I have a multitude of friends and colleagues who are looking at next July and going ‘That’s when I have to retire,’ ” he said, adding that others have said they’ll have to retire in the next five years should the changes become law.

Vaughn said the changes would only exacerbate school districts’ problems with recruiting quality teachers and administrators.

Vaughn and his wife are both mid-career teachers with another 20 years ahead of them before they can retire, he said. Under the changes, he said some teachers would be driven to move to surrounding states.

“Apparently our state doesn’t want us,” he said.

Gural said he’s still 15 years away from retirement. Since he’s unable to retire before 2023, he said he faces losing the ability to put his accrued sick days toward an enhanced retirement benefit. Gural also faces what he described as a 3 percent pay cut because of the mandatory increased contribution to retiree health care.

“I want to kind of speak up and hopefully my voice is heard before they make that decision,” he said.

In a video posted on Bevin’s Facebook account last week, the governor criticized Executive Director Tom Shelton of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents for calling for rallies that would occur during an as-yet-unannounced special legislative session.

“What he’s calling on is for schools to be shut down, for your children to be sent home, so that teachers and superintendents and other people can come here and protest us saving the pension system,” he said in the video.

In response to Bevin’s comments, Vaughn said teachers have the same rights as anyone else.

“I would tell the governor to look at the First Amendment to the Constitution, and I would remind him that teachers are still citizens,” he said.

Vaughn called for “rhetoric” against teachers to be toned down.

Gural said he’s “trying to remain calm” in response to comments from Bevin, but they have offended him.

“I took umbrage at the governor’s comments,” he said.

Gural said he’d like for the burden of fixing Kentucky’s pension problem to be shared more equally, rather than state workers bearing the brunt of the costs.

“It strikes me that there should be a shared responsibility to this,” he said.

Vaughn agreed, calling for bipartisanship.

“There’s going to have to be some work done on all sides, but it really does need to be collaborative,” he said.

– The Associated Press contributed information to this report.