March 2014

Missouri Charter Schools and Teacher Pension Plans: How Well Do existing Pension Plans Serve Charter and Urban Teachers?

Focusing on the Kansas City and Saint Louis school districts, the authors argue that the defined benefit pension structure does not benefit Missouri’s urban schools. The authors find that pension systems reward only a small percentage of teachers who remain in the same district for an extended period, while severely penalizing teachers who move across districts or leave the profession.

How Generous Are Public Pensions?

March 28, 2014

Chad Aldeman

For the average full-career state worker, traditional defined benefit plans are working quite well. But these are the relative winners of the pension lottery, and all other participants are losing out.

Pension Politics

Retirement Insecurity

The Pension IOU

March 26, 2014

Chad Aldeman

Pensions are an investment in the future, but politicians can’t resist the urge to use today’s money to pay for today’s services.

Pension Politics

State Pension Plans

Transition Costs and Public Pension Reform

This paper argues that transition costs from moving from defined benefit pension systems to defined contribution plans are minor and should not stand in the way to pension reform.

New York City Teacher Retention Rates from 1917 and Today

March 24, 2014

Leslie Kan

Pensions provide us with more than just financial data. Pensions also provide us with key information about teacher retention, reaching back for decades. In New York City, teachers do not remain in the profession as long as they did in the past. Instead of responding to this trend, the New York City teacher pension plan has become less generous to mobile teachers.

Mobility and Portability

Pensions and Human Capital

Retirement Insecurity

My Presentation at AEFP: Using Pension Plans to Measure Teacher Attrition Rates

March 17, 2014

Chad Aldeman

Last week we presented our new paper, Friends without Benefits: How States Systematically Shortchange Teachers' Retirement and Threaten Their Retirement Security, at the 39th annual conference of the Association of Education Finance and Policy (AEFP).

Mobility and Portability

Retirement Insecurity

State Pension Plans

Pension Politics: Public Employee Retirement System Reform in Four States

While politics have frequently hampered the efforts to reform state pensions systems, several states have successfully passed significant reform to their pension systems.

Friends without Benefits

Half of all Americans who teach in public schools won’t qualify for even a minimal pension benefit, and less than one in five will remain long enough to earn a normal retirement benefit. As a result, while the system works for a few, it creates an enormous problem affecting many—especially given the sheer size of the teaching workforce.

Warren Buffett on Pensions

March 6, 2014

Chad Aldeman

Warren Buffett's latest letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway has a wonderful primer on pensions.

Pension Politics

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March 2014