April 2015

Ten ways education reporters can dig into teacher pension issues in their state.
In many cases, teachers may be better off taking a refund on their contributions rather than waiting around to receive a pension.
For all the talk about expansion, there hasn’t been any mention of extension to those without Social Security coverage.
In many ways, women are worse off under defined benefit pension plans than they would be under more portable retirement plans.
Pension plans are opaque about how investment plan investment decisions are made, what sort of fees are paid on those investments, and how the investments perform over time.
Unfortunately, the practice of favoring seniority at the cost of early career teachers extends to pensions.
A report from author Andrew Biggs finds that transition costs should not prevent state or local governments from closing old pension plans and switching to a defined contribution, cash balance, or other hybrid plan.
How long will advocates continue to protect unequal and unfair teacher pension systems?
Teachers around the country are getting shortchanged on their retirement benefits.