Almost all federal workers today participate in a hybrid retirement plan, which itself replaced
an outdated pension system and has provided employees with secure, portable retirement benefits.
Budgetary shortfalls, school district bankruptcies, teacher and administrator layoffs, hiring and salary freezes,
pension system defaults, shorter school years, ever - larger classes, faculty furloughs, fewer course electives, reduced field trips, foregone or curtailed athletics,
outdated textbooks, teachers having to make do with fewer supplies, cuts in school maintenance, and other tales of fiscal woe inevitably captivate the news media, particularly during the late - spring and summer budget and appropriations seasons.