- Your State Made You a Promise, and It Has to Be Kept
- Funding Solution: Lower the Assumed Rate of Return
- Funding Solution: Adopt Funding Stabilization Policies
- Funding Solution: Automatically Require Paying Pension Bills
- Funding Solution: Separate Out "Legacy" Pension Debt
- Funding Solution: Test the Resilience of the Pension Fund Regularly
- Funding Solution: Reduce Fees Paid to Wall Street Managers
- Benefit Solution: Guaranteed Income Plan Benefit Design for the 21st Century
- Best Practices for Ensuring Everyone Has a Path to Retirement Security
- Review
Your State Made You a Promise, and It Has to Be Kept
Your compensation is more than just the dollars in your paycheck. It’s also the full package of benefits you receive, including health care and retirement benefits. Retirement benefits are earned just as salary is earned, and you have every right to expect that you’ll collect those benefits when you retire.
When teachers hear about proposed changes to their retirement systems, they are understandably concerned that changes will reduce their pension benefits and negatively affect their overall compensation. But changes to improve retirement plan sustainability and retirement security do not have to affect you negatively. It certainly doesn’t make sense that you’d be better off ignoring the real problems your pension system might be facing.
We need solutions that both honor the commitments made to you while improving the overall financial health of the system to provide a secure retirement for you and future generations of dedicated educators.
