Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Fix teacher retirement crisis today

Fix teacher retirement crisis today:
"Here in Michigan — and in Detroit especially — we’re far too familiar with what happens when we leave retirees’ future in the hands of politicians.
Underfunding.
Benefit cuts.
Bankruptcy.
In the aftermath?
Michigan taxpayers always get stuck paying for the politicians’ mess.
Well don’t look now, but the same warning signs the politicians ignored for years in the Motor City are on full display in the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System.
...Without action, the entire retirement system is in serious jeopardy.
There’s a crisis coming for Michigan’s educators, the kids they teach, and the parents who pay their salaries.
Michigan’s public teacher retirement system — commonly referred to by Lansing insiders as MPSERS, or “mipsers”—is so dramatically underfunded that teachers’ pensions are at risk, current efforts just to catch-up are taking more than $700 per pupil out of the classroom each year, and new teachers understandably worry that the their benefits may not be there when they retire.
The massive pension system is facing a staggering $26.7 billion unfunded liability.
To fully fund the benefits Lansing has guaranteed our teachers, the fund needs $67.7 billion in the bank.
 There’s only $41 billion in the fund..."

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