The Raping of the Illinois Teacher Retirement System
Our President's Home State
Since Dan Walker strolled the governor’s mansion in Illinois, the Teacher Retirement has been raided by the corruption that is known as “government” in Illinois. Educators in the state of Illinois pay for 75% of their own retirement, contrary to popular belief. Yet the 25% the state owes has not been paid to the TRS since Jim Edgar’s governance 1991-99. And now the newest governor, Pat Quinn, has proposed a $2.5 billion reduction in state funding to the five state pension systems for the fiscal year that begins July 1, including a $1.3 billion cut to the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois (TRS).
Further, this budget blueprint calls for the state to suspend its payments to the pension systems as of March 31, 2009, eliminating $362 million due to TRS in the current fiscal year. The proposed cuts would exacerbate the state’s $73 billion pension debt, of which $41 billion is the Teachers’ Retirement System’s share. The plan perpetuates the broken funding promises that occurred most recently in fiscal years 2006 and 2007 when the state deviated from its statutory funding obligation and cut $2.3 billion in funding to the retirement systems.
From Jon Bauman, Executive Director of TRS, “These amounts must be repaid to the retirement systems with interest. If $1.3 billion is cut from
TRS during fiscal year 2010, it will cost the state $5.8 billion over the 35 years remaining in the statutory funding plan.” “The funding reductions hit particularly hard because of the systems’ recent investment losses caused by extreme volatility in the global financial markets.”
The state’s pension debt is mainly a product of insufficient state funding over a period of three decades and not due to overly generous benefits. The average retirement benefit paid by TRS totals $41,500 a year. Public school teachers in Illinois do not receive Social Security, often
making their TRS benefit their only source of retirement income.
The Governor’s budget plan also calls for current active members of TRS to pay an additional two percent of their pay toward retirement, a provision that is considered an impairment of benefits and prohibited under the Illinois and U.S. Constitutions. TRS members currently
contribute 9.4 percent of their income, which is already among the highest contribution rates in the nation among teacher pension plans.
TRS is urging the Illinois General Assembly to comply with current state law requiring actuarial funding amounts designed to pay off most of the state’s pension debt by fiscal year 2045.
TRS provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to 355,584 teachers, administrators and Illinois public school personnel employed outside the city of Chicago. The market value of the System’s assets stood at $29 billion as of December 31, 2008.
Kyle McCarter, senator of the 51st district in Illinois, likens Quinn’s budget to that of infamous Blagojevich saying it continues Blago’s legacy in our corrupt state.
http://www.senatormccarter.com/?sectionid=22§iontree=21,22&itemid=79
As I look toward my own retirement, I do so with much trepidation. Threats of redutions, extensions and further payments from the ones I have made over the entire length of my career fill me with anger and fear. With all of the irresponsible and derelict actions in our country by a reckless and negligent Democrat government, the hope that Blago’s exit and Quinn’s entrance once wraught seems like much more of the same.
More of the same
This is really disturbing. What a rotten deal! I am retired in Texas, and I can’t draw Social Security either. We haven’t had a raise since 2001.
Wondering what the retirement system is like in Texas. I know IL has been touted as a great system because it is very well run and invested. The legislature cannot stand that we’ve done so well that is why they steal from our system and want to bring it down. Not surprising, but disgusting. That’s Illinois…our corrupt president’s corrupt home town. Thanks for writing.
I am outraged. I think it is time to reconsider merging with the AFT. Teachers desperately need a bigger club. Besides what chicagobluesgirl outlines, the increase in education spending in the state of Illinois is proposed to be paid DIRECTLY by Illinois public school teachers. The 2% TRS contribution increase coincidentally mirrors the education spending increase. I’d rather just hand out money directly to the students in my classroom.
Don’t know if it will do any good but I’ve forwarded emails to all the educators I know and I’ve faxed all of our representatives in the hopes they will back us up. They’ll lose a lot of votes if they mess with educators in this state. That’s my only hope. Thanks for writing.
The only way to get the attention of government officials both at the state and national level is to stage a walk out. It is doubtful that the parents would stand off their children to miss school. But, if teachers are not willing to take a strong collective stand on this issue they will continue to get the short end of the stick.
Patrick,
You are so right. I think this is the era of the people finally standing up. Check out this website: http://irsvote.com/
Thank you for writing.
Stop crying about how bad teachers in illinois have it! What is the Average yearly salary? I am pretty sure its around 55,000 a year. Thats a lot of money considering you sit on your butt three months out of the year. Your pensions are funded by the taxpayers which average 75 to 80% of your retiring salary. Now teachers are supporting a bill that will increase taxes for all working illinois citizens because its in the best interest of their greedy union. I get a 401K retirement which is far less that your pensions amount to. I pay for my own retirement along with a small contribution from my employer, so please stop threating to have a strike because your not getting what you want. I thought your top priority was about education and children not about your greedy pension.
This is such an outrage. The average teacher at Maine West earns $100,000 per year and gets a 75 day vacation each summer. The amount of money they contribute to their pensions would not cover half of their retirement benefits. Pull out an Excel program and just do the math! And show me a corporation who pays 25% matching monies like Illinois tax payers. I walk out on my job and I get fired. Teachers strikes are as common as rain. Teachers have an incredible golden parachute set up by their union at my expense! I cannot afford my own retirement but my proprty taxes just went to pay for yours. Guess what? The market did not gain anything in the last 10 years. Your model of growth is out the window and now you demand you get paid money that never grew in the investments you put your money in. Tough luck!
I think Paul said it best:
68.75.5.42
2010/03/17 at 6:43 am
Mike
Your example excludes compound interest on a teacher’s contributions over 30-35 years. For example a single year contribution of $5,000 could grow in value to #20,000 in 25 years and to $39,000 in 35 years based on an average annual yield of about 5%.
Your figures are based on a teacher only working 20 years, teachers work and contrubute to their retirement for 30-35 years.
A teacher’s lifetime contribution of $130,000 with interest could accumulate to $500,000 over 30-35 years plus the life of the annuity.
The 25% State match could accumulate, with interest, another $125,000 over 30-35 years plus the life of the annuity.
The teacher and State contribution above with interest could total $625,000 or more over 30-35 years plus the life of the annuity.
The uneducated is always fun to listen to. First off the teacher retirement system is a sucessful model. During the economic collapse they lost money like every 401K but to say that there has been no market growth in the last 10 years is completely false. Maybe you should look into an investment group or at least a different one. I find it very hard to believe you stats that the average salary is $100K in Maine. I do not have the figures and do not plan to research them. Everyone complains that teachers have it so easy and their retirements are great. We contribute nearly 10% of our salaries towards our retirement which is more than most employees do. Teachers are professional individuals that educate our future. Lets compare similar careers. I graduated college 11 years ago and make $43,000 a year. My friend graduate same time with nearly same major and makes $120,000 a year. So what is fair? Everyone on here assume that we contribute such a small amount and then get this big paycheck at the end. This is no different than any well managed retirement system (401K). You start saving for retirement early and do it every year your money will grow many times over. Talk to any investment company and they can show you the numbers.
Excellent reply, Kent, most do not understand the difference in the well managed retirement system in IL. In spite of the several years of the state’s squandering of their part of the agreement, TRS has invested teacher and employer contributions well. Very few educators in IL retire rich. Most continue with other jobs to make ends meet. We do not receive free insurance or benefits but must pay for it like everyone else.
Bluesgirl, I agree with your post. I can certainly concur, both professionally and personally.
To your question about Texas TRS: It’s a professionally managed, well-run operation. Good investors and nationally respected. Their assets were nearly $100 billion before the market collapsed, and the funded ratio was about 90%.
Another coincidence re: the Filan/Quinn budget: the dollar amount cut from pension funding and the amount given away by tripling the personal exemption are roughly the same.
Jon,
I am honored you wrote on my blog. You have had many challenges in your position at TRS and have done remarkably well keeping as many wolves away as possible. I’ve written to everyone I can think of to fight off further damage to our pensions but let us know what else we can do to further the cause. Thank you for all you do.
So sad that so few really understand other pension plans and the Illinois problems. First, while teachers in Illinois contribute 9+%, their districts contribute little. In many states the districts and teachers contribute the total and the total is part of the contact salary totals. Second, other states do not allow the final years jack ups in salaries or the addition of large sick day numbers to the three years final average nor do they pay substantial medical benefits. All of these create huge unfunded liablities. Also, unlike Illinois other plans do not guarantee annual 3% increases. Illinois teachers are paid above average ,have had early retirement incentives and are not exposed to regualr adjustement to their and district contributions to insure pension funding that are in place in other. They are able to put all responsibility on the other taxpayers of Illinois. Remember also, unlike other states ,their pensions are not subject to state income taxes. To make it even worse, other states teachers contribute to SS, whereas Illinois teachers can take tha equivalent amount,put it in a 403b and get several times better return than the contibutions ot ss.
Illinois teachers are a spoiled lot who have been part of a part of a program that epitomizes the issues faced by the U.S. entitlement system .
Hi. Thanks for writing. Not all of your facts are correct. I will address a couple of them. First of all, if other systems have not set up a solid, quality retirement/pension system like Illinois, that is too bad–if that includes your system–then fight for a change. Secondly, because the Democrats and Obama have destroyed this economy does not mean that our teachers should be the ones to suffer for it. Sacrifice includes a choice, not something forced. I’ll sacrifice to help out the homeless or a hurting friend, I don’t deserve to have my government decide I should sacrifice because they’ve spent unwisely.
Second, in the agreement between teachers and the state of Illinois, the teachers pay 75% of their pension and the state is to pay 25%. They have not done so for several administrations rather they’ve squandered their responsibility on their own pet projects. The reason Illinois set up this pension agreement was to draw quality teachers to our state. We do have an excellent retirement system because we’ve worked to make it that way. I happen to be closely involved with the mentoring system in our state having written various competitive grants and supported the movement to hire and keep high caliber teachers in our districts. My own district’s attrition rate is a low 5% and our achievement scores have doubled in the last 5 years so I think we are on the right track. Most of our teachers are highly trained professionals with Masters or Doctorate degrees they’ve paid for on their own. I can attest to the fact that if they are not high quality, they are released (even if tenured–though that takes longer to do). In addition, don’t think my colleagues and I working 60 hours a week is “spoiled.”
Third, a large percentage of our teachers are second career meaning that they’ve paid into SS and are now paying into a pension system. Each year they pay into TRS, they lose more of their hard-earned Social Security. My friend worked for 30 years under Social Security and has lost most of it. When she retires after 10 years of teaching–she’ll make only $14,000 from both systems.
Fourth, districts no longer up the ante for remaining years as a 6% cap was set on raises several years ago. In addition, the requirements to retire have tightened significantly. Teachers can no longer retire early without high penalty–right now over 11% per year reduction of total retirement payments. New teachers work at least 36 years or until 62.
Lastly, check your research on whether or not districts pay anything because my district pays quite a hefty sum for all of its administrators as a part of their wages rather than giving them a high salary. If you are going to start working on the US entitlement system, start with the existing welfare system Obama, to get more votes, is trying to promote where people are paid to stay home and the more babies and disabilities they have gain them higher and higher incomes on the taxpayer’s dime. Start your complaining there rather than on a group of hard working educators who pay 75% of whatever retirement they enjoy.
I agree citizens that stay home and spit out babies on the taxpayers dime are a cancer to our society. Lets face it though your jobs as teachers are not very physically demanding. I am sure the majority of teachers will have no problem working until the age of 62. A construction worker on the other hand who has his body abused through hard physical labor needs to retire at 60 because at that age he is not longer capable of perfoming the duties of his job. I have no problem with making teachers “work” until they are 62. Your job is not very difficult. It basically amounts to giving brief summaries of the lesson plans that are taught from k-12 grade and lets face it most summaries are not based on very complicted information depending on what grade you teach. If any teaching profession deserves a higher salary its college professors not junior high or high school teachers. I remember some pretty stupid high school teachers back in the day. The majority of your college tuition is covered by the pell and map grants so stop acting like your paying our of your own pocket.
You must be pretty frustrated where you are and with the economy as it is, I don’t blame you. You have never walked in my shoes and actually have no idea what my job or any teacher’s job is like so I’ll forgive your lack of understanding (though not your rudeness). Personally, I work a 60 hour week, sometimes more…many evenings and several weekends (no overtime). I also pay, like other IL teachers, 75% of my pension which earns interest at TRS. The other 25% was supposed to be paid by the state, the institution that runs public schools in Illinois. They paid it to entice higher quality teachers to enlist even though the pay is often less than other professions (no we don’t get paid for our summers off, they spread the pay for 9.5 months over 12—most of us work two jobs to make ends meet). Instead, the state squandered that 25% on other things. That’s where our frustration comes in. If you were told that if you paid 75%, your employer would match it with 25% and then s/he went back on that word, you’d be pretty angry also.
I agree that college professors should be paid more (teaching college was my part-time job some years back). Even though they work only 20 hours a week, that doesn’t include meetings, planning lessons, grading papers, etc. Most districts have a very high attrition rate because new teachers quit once they realize how much work it is and how incredibly exhausting it is to do their job well.
Yes, we have some bad teachers and they need to be fired. But we have many, many great teachers who change student lives forever. Very few teachers have their college paid for by the Pell Grant. My friend has $70K in bills she’ll be paying off the rest of her life. I had well over $18K in bills to pay off.
Finally, all I can say to you is walk a mile in my shoes before you judge me.
How do you pay for 75% of your pension if your pension averages 41,500 dollars a year? You would have to make more than your average yearly salary to pay for that pension. That 75% is just a number the unions tell you to throw around so the average taxpayer won’t feel like they are getting screwed by paying for your retirement. If your salary is averaging 55,000 a year and you only contribute 9.4% annually the numbers just don’t add up for a 41,500 dollar pension. I know those numbers have probably been drilled in your head and you never checked to see if your contributions cover the costs or not. How can you say I have no idea what its like to walk in your shoes (or sit at your desk). I have gone to school for 16 years so I have a pretty good idea of what a teachers job requires. All I am saying is that a lot of shitty teachers take advantage of an overly generous system and do very little work in return. Very few pensions average 41,500 a year and I don’t feel as if yours should be an exception (especially considering how easy your job is). You only work nine months out of the year!!!!!
First, I am a retired teacher. Second, I have worked in many states and also in the private sector. Illinois has good districts and bad. Performance tends to relate to student demographics just like it does in other states.Also nationally performance does not necesarily align with teacher pay. I know this.
The Illinois model is/was destined for problems the same way the GM model is.
The auditors report shows the amounts contribute by teacher,district and state(I know too that Illinois administrators make extremely good salaries). In most plans, the combines contributions of teacher and district(which is really teacher too) is about 16%(this also depends on how well the pension plans assets perform). One district I worked in the teachers put in 6% and the district 10%. In Illinois teachers had put in 9.3% but districts only a couple percent with the rest made up by the state. The last I saw the total needed to be over 22% to fund. This means that the retirement pay is too high, the investment rates too low or both (By the way the Illinois teacher fund is very poor performing relative to others ).
You must not understand SS if you things someone working for 30 years is getting screwed. Working 40 would not increase it much. Remember it is not like your plan. If you make 10 time more in salary you do not get 10 times more SS. Unlike your plan everyone who pays in subsidizes low end people who get a high minimum and survivor, spouse and disability benefits. That was my whole point. Ill. teachers did not have to pay. Rather they got higher pay that could have been deferred into a 403B and given them 4 times what ss would provide. Most do not have that option. They are forced to pay into a poor system and subsidize other and in turn received lower pay. How could you complain. You have had a free ride.
For the Illinois system to work the teacher/distict contribution needs to go up, benefits need to be frozen, retirements delayed salaies reduced or some combination of all of these.(no different than all other working people these days–adjusting to reality)
We as teachers serve at the behest of the taxpayers. When you say “government” you are talking about all of the non-teachers who pay Illinois taxes and who may be suffering much more than you through the turn down. There is no factual data that would show anything other than the Illinois fiscal system is a wreck and partly because it has set up overly lucrative state pensions that need to be reformed.
I grew up there and have conversations with teachers who are clueless regarding the distorted pay/benefits the teachers have relative to other professions in the state. Basically they are spoiled. I know teachers in many parts of the country who run circles around many there, who work longer hours , earn less and get more form their students. I also know many people who are taking more significant cuts than anything any teacher there would have to take. Just a few thoughts.
Greg,
I am not a teacher, but have retired from the UI and under SURS retirement plan. I did not work 20 or 30 or more years, but fewer than 15…now, when I reach retirement age, I will be penalized by not getting my full SS that I earned in the 30+ years I paid into the system. They call it double-dipping … I call it another governmental rip-off….but I wander.
You are totally wrong (imagine that, a teacher wrong!) in saying IL teachers are spoiled, etc. And the fact that you “know teachers in many parts of the country who run circles around many there….” and so on…are being very un-teacher-like in your argument. For as many underachieving teachers in IL or elsewhere, I’m sure there are dozens or hundreds overachieving. I can only hope you weren’t teaching your students this brand of rhetoric – using supposed facts to support an unpopular idea, when in reality you are merely spouting opinion and trying to make us believe it is truth.
Teachers _deserve_ to have the total support of the taxpayers in their jobs and in their retirement. The problem isn’t with the lower paid (teachers, firefighters, police, etc) hurting our economy, but rather the greedy making BIG $$$$$$’s. I am really surprised you claim to be a teacher and cannot see this.
Kudos to all who not only try to educate our young, but are expected to be baby-sitters, friends, mentors, sex-educators, etc. We as a society have taken a path of least resistance in our child-rearing. We have been told by ‘experts’ that we are not bringing our children up right, so we have allowed (and now expect) somebody else to do the job. The teachers and educators of today are not paid enough for what they have to do and they should NEVER have to worry about their retirement. If I had to do that, I would leave the public sector and seek my fortunes (grin) in the private…let the parents teach their children and see how successful that is.
Greg is a former teacher? I pray (for the sake of his students) that he was not an English teacher!
LOL! Thanks for writing.
How does the State’s contributions for teachers compare to what the State would pay if teachers were under Social Security?
My guess would be the TRS would be better because the state does not take anything from the 75% WE put in, they just don’t put in what they’ve committed to–their 25%. They also have invested well. The feds passed a bill during President Johnson’s administration to allow them to raid Social Security and (I think) Medicare, so it has been affected pretty critically. I do know because I have a pension, when I die, my husband would receive 50% for the rest of his life but if he were to die, I would only receive 1 out of every 3 dollars he had made. But this is just a guess.
My point is that if the State made payments equal to what it would have to pay under Social Security there would be no pension problem! Illinois can find billions to give away to illegal alien benefits, but cant’t afford to pay their pension obligations; go figure! Sounds like a bunch of pandering politicians to me!
You are so right. We can all dream of what could have been.
Also read here.
My God! Texas is almost as bad. Our illustrious Governor Perry had a small tag-in added to a bill that allows the state to borrow from the teacher’s retirement system. I wonder how many states TRS’s are going to wind up like Enron. Also of interest is the fact that the federal government has placed all teachers in deep trouble nationwide. If a teacher works for a district that does not withhold social security, he/she cannot collect his/her spouse’s social security in the event the spouse precedes the person in death. Also, the social security one has paid in already freezes. Hurray for the fat cats in Washington! I bet their spouses are well looked out for unlike the rest of us. We teachers need to stand shoulder to shoulder, act like the professionals we are, and demand better treatment. What most of us do is absolutely nothing but gripe and say, “I can’t do that! I’m a professional.” when it comes to standing up for ourselves. What really irks me about Washington’s attitude is that good old President Clinton(who “did not have sex with that woman”) while getting laid screwed teachers over when he made it against the law for us to go on strike. Where is justice for us? We work under some rough conditions because we love our students but when will our society pay us the respect we deserve? I’m sorry about Illinois, but it’s not much better in Texas. The only thing I’m happy about is that I work for SAISD, an inner city district that withholds social security so I will have (if social security isn’t raped) a little security.
I don’t blame TRS, despite the pillage, they’ve done the best they can. Time for a new governor in IL but I’ll wait to see if anything changes. What I admire about Texas RS is that you are not punished for retiring early…there’s a formula that you can use. In IL, you have to be 60 or have 34+ years, so those of us who stayed home with our kids to rear them are punished 11.40% each year for retiring before 60. Thanks so much for writing!
You did not read what I wrote. I make more than $41K–I work 12 months. If you have not been a teacher, you don’t know their work load. Everyone has gone to school so think they know what teachers do. I’ve been a patient, but do I know what goes into being a doctor? I think not. And yes, I do pay 75% of what I get in my pension. It comes out of my check twice a month.
If you make the mean illinois salary of 55,000 and you contribute 9.4% of that salary every year that adds up to 5,500 dollars a year that you contribute towards you own pension. If you work for 20 years that totals 110,000 dollars. If you make 41,500 a year for your retirement pension salary you will exhaust your contribution within 3 years. From that point on the taxpayers will have to pay for you to sit around and do nothing all on thier own. Don’t try to say that you pay for 75% of your pension because it just isn’t true. The doctor patient comparison is slightly more complicated than the student teacher situation. Doctors are far more intelligent that teachers so its almost laughable that you would see similarities between the two situations.
Mike,
Interestingly enough, I have been involved in a similar conversation on another message board that you’re involved in now. Someone claimed that teaching was easy and they knew all about it since they went to school for most of their lives and was currently working on their Master’s degree. You may not have liked the doctor example that was used early, but it makes a valid point. Just because you are on one side of something, it doesn’t mean you know everything there is to know about the other side. I’ve eaten at McDonald’s, but I don’t know what it’s like to work there. I’ve hauled stuff in cars and trucks before, but I don’t know everything that’s involved in driving a truck for a living. I’ve participated in, coached, and gone to sporting events, but I don’t know what it’s like to be a professional athlete. I really didn’t have a clue about what teachers go through until I became one. You’re making a lot of assumptions when you say you know about the teaching profession and quite frankly, you’re way off. If you think teachers just work seven and a half hours a day or nine months out of the year, you’re sadly mistaken. After reading your attack on teachers and their pensions, you come across as someone who is very hard headed and I don’t expect you to learn anything from this. I will end by saying that you are way off and until you become a teacher yourself, you’ll never even have the first idea of everything that is involved in being a good teacher.
Thanks, Gregg. You’ve got it right and said it perfectly.
Mike
Your example excludes compound interest on a teacher’s contributions over 30-35 years. For example a single year contribution of $5,000 could grow in value to #20,000 in 25 years and to $39,000 in 35 years based on an average annual yield of about 5%.
Your figures are based on a teacher only working 20 years, teachers work and contrubute to their retirement for 30-35 years.
A teacher’s lifetime comtribution of $130,000 with interest could accumulate to $500,000 over 30-35 years plus the life of the annunity.
The 25% State match could accumulate, with interest, another $125,000 over 30-35 years plus the life of the annunity.
The teacher and State contribution above with interest could total $625,000 or more over 30-35 years plus the life of the annunity.
Thanks Paul…wish the state WOULD do their part…
Tont…
This is a note to all Illinois citizens and the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun Times Who are constantly harping about Teachers saleries and their pensions. Stop and think about the cost to become a teacher and then compare their starting saleries to other professions. Realizing that to be able to make any money teaching one must have a Masters degree and enough hours beyound that would qualify for a Doctor’s Degree. All completed at an approximate cost of $350 dollars a credit hour. Paid for by the the teacher without in most cases School District help. All while working a forty hour week and who knows how many hours at home doing school business. Ask your Sons and Daughters, or better yet,Ask yourselves if it is worth paying over a hundred thousand dollars to become a poorly paid Teacher. Come on people wake up and find out all the facts before you condemn Teachers and their high salaries.
Please go to Northeastern Illinois college web site and read about the “masters” degree programs for teachers. You can actually buy CD’s which are mailed to your home, sit in a lazy boy with a Tom Collins, watch them and answer questions for pass fail credits. In my opinion, you have all summer to work on your incredibly easy masters degrees. I recently was hiking with two teachers in AZ who taught in Scottsdale at a charter school. The husband taught calculus to 12th graders and earned about $40,000 a year. He did not earn as much as the public school teachers. He was 50 and laid off by Motorola. He and his teacher wife both laughed at the watered down programs to get a Masters degree. The system was established by teachers to earn easy degrees in order to get paid more. Yeah it takes some extra time but the effort is minimal. Regarding extra hours, some teachers work after school, but the highest paid teachers in Illinois are not English teachers or others grading homework. They are PE teachers! I am so tired of hearing about teachers paying 75% of their wages to their retirement and they deserve their pensions. We ALL pay for our retirement.Even if the state DOES pay up the 25% claimed to be missing, it would NOT pay for your retirement benefits over your lifetime. What kills me is that I earn nothing in 10 years from investments, but you guys feel you’re exempt from your own investment strategies. The DOW just has not gained! Why should teachers not have to live by the actual results of their investments? This is why the IL retirement systen is going bankrupt. Yeah it would be great if the market really returned that 10% a year but it didn’t. So now we are supposed to anti up your retirement money when our own nest eggs are ruined? Contract or no contract, the money is not there. Aside from pension, teachers DO earn a very good wage in Illinois (which bloats the pensions). There are retired teachers in my neighborhood earning much more than the medical doctors in the neighborhood. How about in ground pools, mulitple homes, sport cars, etc. I think 9 years out of school teaching geometry at $73,000 is a good wage. I think athletic director of a high school at $130,000 (16 years) is a good wage. How about the junior high gal who went from PE teacher to principal at $92,000? I have more than these teachers in my neighborhood. Teach PE for 20 years then jump your income by $30,000 and retire at 75% of $92,000. Not bad. Teachers need a 401K plan and not a 25% match from taxpayers. That would be fair.
Someone should investigate how some teachers and especially administrators in Illinois are eligible for SSA and Medicare benefits when teachers and administrators as TRS members are not allowed withhold to FICA from state wages?
I can’t believe what I’m reading; everyone has a choice for a profession they would like to pursue. One could flip burgers, be a plumber or electrician, drive a truck, bait hooks and the list goes on. GET THIS STRAIGHT all of the pension critics have what I like to call PENSION ENVY. Teachers choose their profession for many reasons (for the record I am not a teacher and I have a 401k which was my choice) and one of them was for the pension that has been in place for a long time. Starting salaries for teachers has and still is fairly low compared to other professions however the other benefits outweigh the salary. Teaching is a job just like everyone else and teachers don’t do it for the love of the children only, they have to worry about the future and their families. Casey you’re a fool go back to school get a degree become a teacher and see if you can handle the stress and someday you too will have a pension.
For those that Wish the state would do their part…WE are the state. As for wishing, feel free to wish in one hand and …see which fills faster. The pension has all the money it’s going to get. you better start figuring on how to do with less, and stop whining that promises were not kept. There is no magic wishing well to fund the pension system, and NO it’s not true that taxpayers are magic faries that magically create money for you to have. Take comfort that you had summers off, worked indoors with air conditioning, with no lifting. But as for some miracle to have the state make your dreams come true…it’s not coming. wake up and deal with it.
3rd Grade Teacher in Rockford Il over 100k? WTF
BREAK THE TEACHERS UNION NOW!!!
My taxes for a 100k a year 3rd grade teacher who gets the summers off while my job goes to India. MADDNESS!!!
I want to leave this country, it is clearly doomed. Enjoy your money, your grandchildren will starve.
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2010 in review « Chicagobluesgirl’s Blog said this on January 3, 2011 at 1:52 am |
3rd grade making $100K+….i personally know a former wood shop teacher in district 205 making right at $90K in RETIREMENT income. He’s only in his mid-50s and will reap that benefit for decades potentially.
Illinois teacher’s/administrator’s pay and retirement is an outrage, you should all be ashamed!
John, if you really knew how hard a teacher’s job is, you would be ashamed for being so jealous of the teachers’ retirement benefits. Most people would be lucky to last one year as a teacher in even the best school districts. The brave teachers in the innercity schools are nothing less than heros. Ask actor Tony Danza who survived only one year as a teacher and did not go back for a second year.
chicagobluesgirl:
You mentioned above how well the TRS system is managed. The attached link does not support that argument.
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=166746
“How bad is it? After losing $4.4 billion on investments in fiscal year 2009, and 5 percent on investments in fiscal 2008, the teachers’ pension is now underfunded by $44.5 billion, or 60.9 percent, according to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability’s March 2010 report. By comparison, only 20.3 percent of the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund is unfunded.”
I for one hope that all the greedy public sector employees get exactly what they deserve. Only the amounts they contributed.
What you are referencing is a report on the state’s shirked responsibility. TRS has done quite well with what it DOES have which is the employee and district contributions–so when you are considering what the system consists of, you are looking at employee and employer contributions. Public employees in the teacher retirement system of IL pay taxes and a large chunk of their pensions. They also pay for much or all their healthcare—similar to the private sector. You can call the employees greedy all you want, but it was the state and the union leaders who led them on this path many years ago. Now those who are left in the system are paying the price for many years of misleading by gluttonous union leaders who misspent forced dues often on the Democrat party. I’ve been a conservative my whole adult life. I understand what has happened. I’ve never been happy with our unions or union power. It has gotten out of control and is no longer what it used to be (read my post: “Unions: Tools of Destruction” also posted at Redstate.com.) So, Reader, we will get what we and our employers contributed because our state has misspent what they by our constitution promised to contribute. Thankfully, TRS has invested what was contributed wisely. Still, the state looks with greedy eyes at what WE and our districts have put into our pension system because THEY have misspent our taxes so badly that increasing them by 66% is not enough, they need to dip into our pensions and eventually our 401 saving systems, too.
The premise that teachers are getting screwed (I realize I am commenting long after the original post was made), is misleading at best. At worst, it is a flat out lie.
The pension contribution aside, you are misrepresenting facts. You state teachers pay 75% of their retirment. That may be true, but lets look at facts. As a private employee, I pay 7.65% of my income to retirement called Social Security. In Illinois, teachers pay 9.6% of their pay. So, yeh, you pay a little more, but NOT that much.
Next, when I retire at 67, my benefits are capped at I think $2400 per month $28,800 p/yr. Illinois teachers receive SIGNIFICANTLY greater benefits than that. There is a scale that steps up by the increased number of years worked, but if a teacher starts working at 22 and works 35 yrs (most private sector work longer than that say another 5 yrs), the teacher gets 56.7% of their pay. And their pay is based on the highest 4 yrs in their last 10 yrs. Social Security is based on avg of 20 yrs.
So if a private sector person makes $100k and teacher makes $100k, what are the benefits? Private guy gets $2400 per month (assuming he works till 67 and averages $100k over 20 years. If teachers works to 67 (and starts at 22), he gets 91.2% of his pay. So SS pays $28,800, teacher gets $91,200.
Please tell me who is getting screwed here?
People, it is not the TRS that is broken it is the high salaries teachers receive that rape the retirement system we support through state taxes. We get taxed locally to pay the exorbitant salaries, and get taxed at the state level to fund the retirement system. Let’s face it, teachers live in a vacuum, they are masters at the “poor me” syndrome. 10% of americans make over $100,000 per year. Look on the champions website and see how many teachers make over $100,000 a year. It is astounding. A drivers ed teacher in one community is currently making over $120,000 and now has a 6% guaranteed raise per year for the next four years until he/she retires. Really? In a time when many are unemployed, maybe getting a 2% raise at the most if lucky, and these soon to be retired teachers are gauranteed a 6% raise per year………that’s rape! I have taugth and have many teacher friends so I am well aware of the stress of being a teacher, but a $150,000 salary and a pension of over $100,000 of tax payers money for a 9 month a year job………..give me a break!
Trying to locate teachers who taught summer school prior to the 2002-2003 school year.
John
For what reason?