In a report released this week, we analyzed every state's
teacher retirement plan.
Based on our analysis of Michigan's
teacher retirement plan, it earned an overall grade of D. Michigan earned a C for providing adequate retirement benefits for teachers and a F on financial sustainability.
Based on our analysis of New Jersey's
teacher retirement plan, it earned an overall grade of F. New Jersey earned a F for providing adequate retirement benefits for teachers and a F on financial sustainability.
data indicating decreased withdrawal rates (or increased retention), the state
teacher retirement plan further increased its 5 - year retention expectations to 66 percent retention from 2007 to 2011.
Based on our analysis of South Carolina's
teacher retirement plan, it earned an overall grade of F. South Carolina earned a F for providing adequate retirement benefits for teachers and a F on financial sustainability.
* This is post is based on research on California's
teacher retirement plan.
If states adopted
teacher retirement plans with less formulaic incentive structures, they would let teachers make retirement decisions that better matched their own unique circumstances.
In a review of teacher pension benefits, Robert Clark and Lee Craig write, «The main story of the past quarter century has been the increased generosity of
teacher retirement plans.
That's not how
teacher retirement plans work.
With $ 1 trillion in plan assets,
teacher retirement plans have real clout with Wall Street hedge funds.
The city
teacher retirement plans in Missouri are in trouble.
Teacher retirement plans have real clout with Wall Street hedge funds, and the unions that staff the boards deciding how to invest that money also have clout.
To explore how charters can use this flexibility to create different
teacher retirement plans, economist and pension expert Michael Podgursky and national charter researchers Susan Aud Pendergrass and Kevin Hesla studied retirement plans at charter schools across five states: Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, and Michigan.
Overall, state
teacher retirement plans received an average grade of a «C -.»
It is a problem, particularly for teachers, that financial literacy and planning varies so widely since
teacher retirement plans require a good deal of financial savvy to understand.
My colleagues Chad Aldeman and Kirsten Schmitz have written previously about the evolution of
teacher retirement plans.
But that's not how most
teacher retirement plans work.
After we created a rubric to grade state
teacher retirement plans, we found a mostly depressing picture: States have set up expensive, debt - ridden systems where most teachers fail to qualify for decent retirement benefits.
In honor of National Save for Retirement Week, we've created a Buzzfeed - style quiz to help you better understand
teacher retirement plans and the issues around them.
EP Fellows in the New Orleans area work on strategic projects that make a difference, including: growth plans for expanding charter management organizations ARISE Schools and KIPP New Orleans, financial analysis of
teacher retirement plans for Algiers Charter School Association, family engagement strategies for Bricolage Academy, and hands - on operations work for ReNEW Schools and Crescent City Schools.
In this descriptive paper we detail the structure of two Washington State
teacher retirement plans: a traditional defined benefit plan and a hybrid defined benefit - defined contribution plan.
In a new report for EPI, Monique Morrissey asserts that, «teachers and schools are well served by teacher pensions,» and attacks our work looking at how many teachers benefit from today's
teacher retirement plans.
States are in the midst of their own contribution increases and benefit cuts, and as a result today's
teacher retirement plans are worse than those offered to prior generations.
Not exact matches
While pensions are not nearly as common as they once were, they are a very important part of the
retirement plans for many of society's most valued workers:
teachers, police officers, fire fighters and more!
At the end of October, the WSP community will say goodbye to 6th grade
teacher Cynthea Frongillo as she heads into
retirement, and
plans new adventures with her husband Alex, our former math and recorder
teacher.
«
Teachers have made their financial
plans for
retirement in good faith on the basis of the long established and historic link with RPI.
The average
teacher has a 2.5 million dollar
retirement plan - only works 180 days a year — took the easiest level of courses in college (even in math physics or chemistry most only took the first two years) and they are still whining.
House Minority Leader Themis Klarides says the Republican
plan is to have the money split with $ 300 million going to pay down state employee
retirement obligations, $ 300 million to the state's
teacher retirement fund, and $ 300 million to the rainy day fund.
And last month I wrote about a new paper studying an early
retirement plan in Illinois that led to huge numbers of older, more experienced
teachers retiring but which resulted in no academic harm.
In addition, Wesleyan will be on hand to assist
teachers with their personal financial
planning needs, from investments and mortgages to loans,
retirement planning, savings and insurance.
In real life,
teachers come into and out of the workforce, cross state lines, and attempt to transfer benefits from one
retirement plan to another.
Focusing instead on offering
retirement plans that provide all
teachers the opportunity to accrue adequate benefits would be a more realistic and equitable approach.
Although Pennsylvania recently made changes to its
retirement plan for new
teachers, for illustrative purposes I'm going to show the system for current
teachers.
A
teacher in her mid-50s who has worked for 30 years under a typical
teacher pension
plan will be entitled to an annuity at
retirement of between 60 and 75 percent of her final salary.
Teacher pensions, much like other defined benefit
plans, provide a more secure path to
retirement, helping many
teachers overcome the multitude of obstacles that prevent saving for
retirement.
Each state pension
plan publishes a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), which includes withdrawal rate tables that estimate the percentage of
teachers who will leave the system before they are eligible for normal
retirement.
Some of the higher cost of employer
retirement plans for
teachers is offset by lower employer contributions for Social Security benefits.
Pension
plans do appear to exert a limited «pull» effect that keeps some late - career
teachers on the job as they near
retirement.
In contrast, most
teacher pension
plans have more rigid
retirement rules than Social Security and also push out
teachers at younger ages.
Another study, by Dan Goldhaber, Cyrus Grout, and Kristian Holden, looked at what happened when the state of Washington placed all new
teachers into a «hybrid»
retirement plan that combined a less - generous pension with 401 (k)- style accounts.
When researchers have tried to estimate the cumulative effects of these two incentives, they've found that shifting to an alternative
retirement plan would actually boost late - career
teacher retention (see «Peaks, Cliffs, and Valleys,» features, Winter 2008).
In the median state, less than half of all
teachers are expected to work long enough to vest in their
retirement plan — meaning that despite big spending and promises, less than half of all public - school
teachers, on average, will ever receive
retirement benefits for their years on the job (see Figure 3).
Pushing workers out at the normal
retirement age is a defining feature of all defined - benefit
plans (including Social Security), and the ones states offer to
teachers are no exception.
Pension
plans also afford
teachers a more predictable source of income into
retirement, which is particularly important for low - and middle - income
teachers.
Current
teacher pension
plans are neither improving the workforce nor providing
teachers with adequate
retirement savings.
That would also explain why
teachers seem to retire based on when the
retirement plan nudges them to do so.
Last year, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts presented its
teachers with an early
retirement plan.
The fact that many
teachers choose to retire at precisely those points suggests that it is the pension
plan pushing their
retirement decisions.
Despite having much less generous
retirement plans, retention rates for early - and mid-career
teachers didn't change at all.
In our recent Education Next report, «Why Most
Teachers Get a Bad Deal on Pensions,» my colleague Kelly Robson and I analyzed state pension plan turnover assumptions to look at two key milestones, the point when teachers first qualify for a pension, and when they become eligible for normal ret
Teachers Get a Bad Deal on Pensions,» my colleague Kelly Robson and I analyzed state pension
plan turnover assumptions to look at two key milestones, the point when
teachers first qualify for a pension, and when they become eligible for normal ret
teachers first qualify for a pension, and when they become eligible for normal
retirement.