The Reformers’ Game Plan (from Diane Ravitch’s Blog)

This reader offers a succinct summary of the reformers’ game plan. He might have added additional elements: a) budget cuts to disable public schools; and b) laws that remove accountability and transparency with privately managed charters; c) evaluating teachers on a bell curve, so that half will always be “below average,” thus creating a “crisis”; d) demanding 100% perfection, 100% proficiency and saying that anything less proves failure.

You can see it played out in state after state, especially in those with Republican governors, and in the pronouncements of the U.S. Department of Education, and it is fully developed in the Romney education agenda. They think that that private management of public education is the wave of the future, preferably it is generates profits for investors, and they are doing their best to make it happen:

First, the reformers have yet another scapegoat [to blame] for poverty. Now it’s the schools that are at fault, not the destruction of our social safety net, not the elimination of worker protections, not the imposition of fair taxation that enables the government to maintain our national infrastructure, and certainly not the actions of the 1% to extract all of the wealth of the U.S. economy for them alone. We don’t need to fix the failed and irrational policies of the past thirty years. No! We just have to reform the schools with for-profit charters, voucher plans and virtual “distance learning” that just happens to divert more tax money to … wait for it … the 1%!

And of course, never mind how all of these reforms are failures. By the time the public is fully aware of that fact, it will be too late to change and we’ll be on to the next scapegoat.

Second, this is just another impossible goal against which to conclude our schools are failures. The logic here is brilliant: Set the standard so impossibly high that the schools will be failures by default. Keep the focus on the unions and test scores, so the public won’t make the real connections between the economic policies of the past three decades but instead will follow the reformers in blind rage.

 http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/13/the-reformers-game-plan/

Dear Illinois Representative and Senator by John Dillon

Well, the Chicago Tribune is at it again, trying to find some way to fuel an irrational and emotive fire under you and your presence in Springfield on August 17^th to pass a form of HB1447 without really thinking about the legal complexities, disregarding the legal costs/outcomes, and including additional state pension systems to what was originally an anemic house bill. 

I am reminded of the lines from “A Christmas Story” when the young and foolish narrator explains the intricacies of trying to avoid the consequences of a escaping the critical double-dog–dare-you.   The Tribune says that you will pass the lesser form of HB1447 because you will be thinking  - and these are their words:  “We are trying to cover our fannies in an election year by telling you we drove to Springfield and fixed this pension mess you voters kept telling us to fix” (Reform Lite? Not Enough. Chicago Tribune. 10 August 2012).  

Maybe you should think about the following, more rational points instead of the Tribune’s constant and strident blaring:

·      HB1447 will constitute a necessary legal battle over Article XIII, Section 5 of the Illinois Constitution.  Do you want to include all the other public unions in what will become a pitched battle?

·      The Tribune loves to talk about the impossibility of paying the $83 billion to the public pension groups.  Of course, that’s a specious way of ignoring that the real annual payment is much less – $800 million for TRS – in a year.  They exploit the public’s fear, but real answers would come in restructuring the debt service of the $83 billion the state owes TRS and the other four pension systems.  Why not ask that question?  Why not start there?

·      The Tribune tells you that offering a choice between healthcare and a COLA is an acceptable manner of reducing costs promised for both items.  This would not be “consideration or choice” in any court.  It is simply coercion. 

·      The Tribune also warns that not including all the public workers (SERS, GARS, JRS, TRS, and SURS) will leave “Illinois saddled.”  In fact, the Tribune reminds us that these items, if passed, would only be “a baby step up Mount Kilimanjaro.”  As long as the General Assembly holds to the ridiculous 1995 ramp-up for bills unpaid to public employees over the last 60 years, there will never be enough to satisfy the problem.  A different form of revenue stream needs to be looked at, a stream that allows for $Billions more in state revenue – a graduated tax system.  That will take serious forward thinking and the kind of statesmanship not seen by the people in this state for some time – maybe after election?

·      Will the General Assembly dissemble the economic machine that provides nearly $4.5 billion in purchasing in the State of Illinois by cutting benefits?  Do you believe that significant cuts to the economic operation will assist in the recovery of the economy?

·      Finally, the Tribune warns that “Incumbents don’t want to inflame the influential blocs of voters…”  We have given our honest industry and energy to the betterment of this state in order to make it a better place to live.  We have forgone Social Security and done what was asked and demanded, and more.  You think we’re not already inflamed?

Sincerely,

John Dillon

Also read http://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2012/08/any-assault-on-public-employees-rights.html

Amending Pension and Retirement Rights through “Consideration”

Simply stated, “Consideration is when a claimant promises something in exchange for the defendant’s promise.”

Consideration should have “value” that is fair to both sides. However, contracts supported by consideration are often one-sided, advantageous arrangements. We could imagine that any agreement with the Illinois General Assembly regarding “guaranteed” funding to the pension systems would not be a “valid” consideration for public employees, for example, because it would be in exchange for reductions of originally-vested benefits guaranteed by the Illinois Constitution.

What’s more, there is no question whether legislators will renege on a new promise made to public employees. The question is how soon it will happen. Legislators can rewrite or undo any bill they pass. A conversation with any representative will verify this incongruous reality. Any "Quid Pro Quo" guaranteed by legislators will inevitably become a "Failure of Consideration."

“Funding” public employees’ pensions would have to be written into the Illinois Pension Code (40 ILCS 5/) to be considered a “benefit” guaranteed by the state constitution. In this way, consideration would create a contractual cause of action for the full enforcement of that expectation – an irrevocable binding contract between the state (legislators) and public employees (or would it?). This will not occur, however, because House Speaker Michael Madigan and other legislators want to shift the normal costs of the teachers’ retirement pension to local school districts and property taxpayers, and this proposal reveals rather obvious legislative intentions.

Also read http://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2012/05/sb-1673-is-without-legal-and-moral.html

That Was Then; This Is Now (Illinois Public Pensions)

“Where you are headed is more important than where you are… Pension costs are growing faster than revenue… The unfunded liability of $44 billion is bigger than the state’s general funds budget of $33 billion… TRS can no longer rely on old assumptions” (Ingram).

The “new reality” for public employees is about rediscovering that funding is not guaranteed to the pension systems, even though public employees are guaranteed a pension “benefit” that cannot exist without guaranteed “funding.” 

The “new reality” reveals an unlikely-guaranteed funding because some legislators (mainly democrats) want to shift the state’s financial responsibility (its normal costs of pensions) to school districts, universities and property taxpayers, regardless of promises or consequences. 

The “new reality” is about distorting fundamental issues and blaming the state’s budget deficit on teachers, firemen, policemen, and other state workers. It is about the notion that public pension systems are  not affordable and, therefore, unsustainable. It is perpetuated through skewed broadcasting that omits the obvious fact that pension costs are increasing because of a defective 1995 “ramp-up” payment to the pension systems and the accrued pension debt caused by irresponsible, incompetent and corrupt politicians; reckless union leaders; and three illogical court rulings (People ex. Rel. Illinois Federation of Teachers v. Lindberg, 1975; McNamee v. State, 1996; People ex. Rel. Sklodowski v. State, 1998).

The “new reality” is about HB 1447 and SB 1673, two bills fouled by duress (unlawful pressure) and undue influence (the exploitation of a relationship of influence to obtain an advantage). It is about reneging on responsibilities; thus, there is pension reform such as capping salaries for final pension calculations, increasing the retirement age for receiving a cost-of-living adjustment, and coercing public employees and retirees to make an illicit choice or lose the state’s precarious health insurance subsidy and creditable earnings in retirement or compounded COLA. 

The “new reality” is about creating disposable public employees, privatizing services for profit, and ignoring the decline of the middle class.  It is about disregarding an active and retired teacher’s dignity; about betrayal and indifference and discounting the legal and moral commitment to proceed ethically by reforming the state’s pension debt and revenue structure, because what really matters for most Illinois politicians is not the state’s perpetuated unfunded liability and inequitable and unbalanced revenue system, but the diminishment of public employees' rights and benefits and elimination of the state’s pension payments despite the severe effects it will have on thousands of peoples’ lives.


-Glen Brown


“A Long Time Ago [Two Years ago] in a [TRS] Galaxy Far, Far Away…”

To the Editor [of the State Journal-Register]:
August 6, 2010

R. Eden Martin's article in the August 4 State Journal-Register concerning ways to fix state government's budget crisis unfortunately contained some misinformation about state pensions, especially teachers' pensions. It's unfortunate because Mr. Martin's misinformation only scares teachers and state workers into thinking that their retirement plans are built on sand. In reality, teachers and other government workers will continue to receive their pensions for years to come.

In his article, Mr. Martin incorrectly states that if a state pension plan goes broke, the employee's claim "is against the pension fund - not the state," implying that employees have no legal recourse to their money and would get stiffed. His conclusion is based on an incomplete reading of state law.

Teachers comprise the largest single segment of public pensioners in Illinois. The state law that empowers the Teachers' Retirement System (40 ILCS 5/l6-158(c)) is very specific: "Payment of the required State contributions and of all pensions, retirement annuities, death benefits, refunds, and all other benefits granted or assumed by this System, and all expenses in connections with the administration and operation thereof, are obligations of the State." In other words, state government does guarantee teachers' pensions.

Mr. Martin also claims that state government's "sovereign immunity" against lawsuits would prevent teachers from successfully suing to claim their pensions. In reality, the state has waived its sovereign immunity in regard to teacher pensions because TRS is a qualified pension plan under the tax deferral provisions of the Internal Revenue Service Code. Federal law would protect all claims.

Finally, Mr. Martin's premise that state retirement systems could "go broke" is, in itself, faulty. It assumes that at some point in the future, all outstanding pension obligations come due on a specific day because all school districts, as well as state and local governments, just stop functioning.

Sincerely,

Dave Urbanek

Public Information Officer

Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois

“A Long Time Ago [21 months ago] in a [TRS] Galaxy Far, Far Away…”

To the Editor [of the State Journal-Register]:
November 3, 2010

In his recent letter to the editor, Gerald Naughton unfortunately repeats an erroneous prediction from Northwestern University professor Joshua Rauh that the State of Illinois' public pension systems will "run dry" in 2018. The reality is Mr. Rauh's doomsday scenario has been routinely discredited by financial experts.

The state's largest public pension fund, the Teachers' Retirement System, currently invests more than $33 billion in assets for its 365,000 members and will pay out more than $4 billion in pensions and benefits this year. Retired teachers in Central Illinois should not worry about the stability of their pensions.

Rauh's prediction will only come true at TRS if – over the next eight years – TRS does not earn another dime in investment income or does not receive any contributions from active teachers, school districts and state government. That scenario is simply next to impossible.

First, because state law says teachers and school districts must contribute to TRS, the only way those contributions dry up is if all public school districts in Illinois stop operating. Further, Rauh greatly underestimates the investment income TRS and other pension systems will generate in the future. His prediction is based on an unrealistic investment return of about 2 percent per year. In fiscal year 2010, the actual rate of return on TRS investments was 13.5 percent. Over the last 25 years it averages out to 8.6 percent.

Repeating Rauh's prediction as if it were a cold hard fact only serves to unnecessarily scare teachers into thinking their pensions will soon collapse. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Sincerely,

Dave Urbanek
Public Information Officer
Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois


“A Long Time Ago [13 months ago] in a [TRS] Galaxy Far, Far Away…”

To the Editor [Voice of the People, Chicago Tribune]:
July 7, 2011

The Tribune's July 5 editorial, "Rescuing public pensions," is centered on the false premise that Illinois' current pension plans for its public employees are "doomed" and unsustainable. The truth is that the state's pension plans are sustainable. When public pensions are not properly funded on a timely basis – as we have seen for decades in Illinois – state costs increase as the government plays catch-up. Two-thirds of the state's $6.4 billion pension contribution for fiscal year 2012 is the cost of "kicking the can down the road."

While it is true that taxpayers – including teachers and public employees – foot the entire bill, in reality the amount of tax dollars needed to help fund the state's current pension obligation is $1.6 billion. The remainder is debt service and paying off an unfunded liability. This is an important distinction. It is often falsely claimed that public employees receive "lavish" pensions. Adding the cost of paying down debt to the actual cost of benefits lends credence to this misconception.

In recent months, the central question raised by the Tribune in the court of public opinion is whether tax dollars should be spent on pensions or other state programs— and not whether the state has the money to pay its pension obligations. This is, correctly, a conversation about spending priorities, not pension sustainability. Teachers' Retirement System, the state's largest public pension plan with 372,000 members, is committed to being a trusted partner in the on-going discussion over public pensions. But as this conversation continues, it is vital to keep in mind that correct facts, the Illinois Constitution, state laws and prior judicial rulings do matter, however inconvenient they may seem in the court of public opinion.

Sincerely,

Dick Ingram
Executive Director
Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois

That Was Then; This Is Now:

A Chicago Tribune Commentary, April 10, 2012

In recent days, news reports have circulated throughout Illinois claiming that I am calling for changes in the benefits currently received by retired teachers. I understand completely the confusion and frustration these reports have created. To be clear: Neither I nor Teachers’ Retirement System is proposing any changes in member benefits, especially a reduction in the current annual cost-of-living adjustment. All of us at TRS are working to educate our members and the general public about a “new reality” in state government that throws long-term financial viability of the system into serious doubt. It is not our role at TRS to suggest a solution to this problem.

In February, I informed the system’s board of trustees that TRS can no longer be confident that the General Assembly will appropriate all of the money to TRS that is required by law. The State of Illinois’ growing budget deficit and the system’s $43 billion unfunded liability is together causing this new reality at TRS. If the General Assembly does not continue to provide all of the funding called for in state law, calculations done by TRS actuaries show that the system could become insolvent as soon as 2030.

Last year, TRS reported that the system’s financial status was good. For the last several years, the state has been able to make its legally-required annual contribution to TRS. As long as the state makes that payment, TRS can “tread water” indefinitely and be viable well into the future. The system has carried an unfunded liability since 1953 and has never missed a check.

I told the board that preventing insolvency may include significant changes for TRS: New revenues must be generated, and if they are not, benefits may have to be reduced. Any of these significant changes can only be made by the General Assembly. I have outlined for the media the possible areas where lawmakers may look for a solution. There are only a few options available and none is very pleasant to discuss – changes in the cost-of-living adjustment, in member contributions, in retirement age and in the benefit formula, as well as increased revenues through taxes.

Dick Ingram
Executive Director
Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, Springfield

Letters to the Editor can be found at http://trs.illinois.gov/subsections/press/TRS_Speaks.htm

If we really want to change the culture of corruption in Illinois, we need to change our conversation by Jane Artabasy

I'm a retired teacher. Being stuck in the middle of this horrendous pension brouhaha is not my idea of a fun time, and I'm both furious and frightened at the prospect before me for my old age. (Forget "golden years." Being old, in any way shape or form, is hard, not golden, even if one is healthy and active)…

After trying to distill the waves of rhetoric and sputtering indignation about teachers' relative security after retirement, I can certainly see both sides of the pension-gutting question. (Oops! Sorry! The spinmeisters call it "pension reform" and, of course, all of us should use their branding of any issue. How shallow of me.) But after all is said and done, the basic question of integrity, ethics, and honesty remains: for decades, we have had a contract with our state government. We honored our side of the deal. We had no choice, and the legislature did not for those same decades.

Ergo, teachers are the victims, not the villains here; state government represents a particularly unsavory collection of weasels. Therefore, the consequences of this fiasco should be borne by the perpetrators of bad faith, not the public servants who give their lives, hearts and minds to the well-being of other people's children. Yes, I understand the bottom line: there is no money.

My answer? Let's go get some. For years, since the Reagan ideology hit the proverbial fan, too many citizens have accepted the poppycock that government is always bad and the private sector is the only refuge for competence and intelligence. This fallacy has provided a rickety soapbox and lots of bumper-sticker thinking for everybody who hates paying taxes (most of us).

But this hate-government silliness has cursed us with unintended consequences. Private enterprise has been extorting and blackmailing us to escape the price of their citizenship (for example, Caterpillar).

Of course, capitalism is about money and profit, not good citizenship. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean corporations don't have to join the party anyway, even if kicking and screaming. Big businesses have plenty of money. We need to go get at least a part of it and stop being paralyzed by sanctimonious threats about moving to "business-friendly" states. This asocial thuggishness they tout as good policy needs to be challenged by a consumer response with spine. Go ahead and move to Alabama, or wherever, but don't expect Illinoisans to buy your products. Good, thoughtful government demands a decent investment FROM the citizens of our state, as well as IN the citizens of our state, by any entity aiming to make money here.

Of course, this needed push-back becomes more difficult year after year, as big money equates with big power, and big power is the currency of governance. If we really want to change the culture of corruption in Illinois, we need to change our conversation away from the “awful greedy teachers” mantra to extracting revenue needed for public commitments; [we also need to change the focus] of the plutocrats who presently control the conversation.

--Jane Artabasy

Any Assault on Public Employees’ Rights and Benefits Is an Attack on the Entire Middle Class

How should we think about the legislative folly of the past several months? When we realize competent and ethical leadership does not exist in the Illinois General Assembly; that the majority of Illinois legislators pass bills they do not read because “doing something” is all that really needs to be done regardless of the disastrous consequences, then our belief in a representative democracy and justice becomes infected by cynicism and anger.

State legislators created the severe unfunded liability for the five public employees’ retirement systems in Illinois, and the current legitimacy of the Illinois General Assembly is doubtful. The current state government is attempting to isolate and offer up one group of people for hardship and, for many of these public employees, create a dispossession by way of intentionally-diminishing laws while perpetuating special exceptions and windfalls for the wealthy elite. This is a mockery of justice.

Public employees’ benefits and rights are guaranteed by a constitutional contract. It is critical that today’s policymakers protect legitimate expectations and concerns for all of the state’s citizenry, especially people who must be defended against those with excessive economic clout and inequitable schemes that pass prejudicial legislation benefiting the financial elite at the expense of everyone else.

House Bill 1447, for instance, offers public employees no ethical and lawful alternatives except to consent to the General Assembly’s demands by choosing between two illicit choices. I wrote about this issue weeks ago: a choice between health care and a compounded COLA is a blatant exploitation of influence to obtain an unwarranted advantage. HB 1447 is an unjust financial enhancement for the General Assembly because public employees will receive less than what the original vested right and benefit guaranteed them. It is an unethical and unlawful attempt for policymakers to circumvent a constitutionally-guaranteed contract. There are many antedated court cases to support this fact.

Moreover, to ignore the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and change laws that protect one group of people is to ignore due process and equal protection of the laws that guarantee contractual agreements. It is shameful that policymakers are willing to renege on a contract when they are the debtors. It is wrong to modify public employees’ contractual rights and benefits prospectively and retroactively when there are other ways to address the pension debt problem, such as through pension debt and revenue restructuring.

Legal and moral sense dictates that the Illinois General Assembly must align with the U.S. and State Constitutions and sanction the vested rights of its middle-class public employees. Policymakers must understand the economic, social and psychological harm that has already been done to this significant body of voters, of which there are approximately 690,000 members. It is a matter of moral and legal concern for every citizen of Illinois to pay attention to any proposed violations of rights and benefits, for “[an] injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Martin Luther King).

Consider the $1.6 billon reduction to Medicaid in Illinois. Consider the thousands of senior citizens who will lose their state health insurance coverage, thus endangering the poorest and neediest of the state’s citizenry. Think about the recent cutbacks in funding to Human Services and to primary, secondary and higher education while the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group Inc., the Chicago Board Options Exchange Holdings Inc., Sears Holdings Corp., Champion Laboratories Inc., Boeing, J.P. Morgan Chase, Motorola and other large corporations were given tax breaks despite record profits. 

Each new tax break given to a financial exchange or corporation means less money to run state government and for payment of debts. It means middle-class citizens will pay the deficit through more cuts to services and through unwarranted pension reform.

If legislators can breach contractual obligations through legislation (such as HB 1447) and through a proposed constitutional amendment (HJRCA 49), the entire middle class will “pay” the consequences. There will be extensive and devastating economic outcomes for the entire State of Illinois if its public employees are robbed of their earned and constitutionally-guaranteed benefits.  The attack on public employees is an attack on the entire middle class:

“[Consider that] retired teachers create a $4.4 billion positive impact for the Illinois economy. The $3.1 billion in pensions and benefits paid to retired teachers and school administrators in Illinois during fiscal year 2012 created a sustained economic stimulus of approximately $4.432 billion that reached all 102 Illinois counties, according to a recent study conducted by the Teachers’ Retirement System. The study’s findings were released… in a new report entitled ‘Economic Impact Study of TRS Benefit Payments by Illinois Legislative District and County.’

“‘It is vital for everyone interested in the future of public pensions in Illinois to understand and remember that pensions and benefits are not just numbers in a ledger. For retired educators, their TRS benefit is often their only source of income because they did not participate in Social Security during their time in the classroom. Their pension enables them to remain active members of their communities,’ (TRS Executive Director Dick Ingram). ‘Retired teachers and administrators contribute greatly to the local economy and Illinois. Tax dollars invested in public pensions flow back into the Illinois economy with every monthly payroll’ (Ingram).

“The [economic impact] study used standard economic multiplier calculations, as well as state and federal statistics, and found [that the] total output from TRS pensions and benefits [was] $4.432 billion. This overall measure of economic activity includes all TRS payments, as well as jobs created and salaries earned in those jobs and increases in the state’s Gross Domestic Product.

“[Total] jobs created: 32, 042. This is the total number of full-time jobs supported by $3.1 billion in pensions and benefits pumped into the Illinois economy. [Total] earnings created: $1.22 billion. This represents the total salaries earned by persons employed in Illinois jobs that are fueled by TRS pension and benefit payments. Illinois GDP Value: $2.544 billion. This is the amount added to the Illinois Gross Domestic Product – the total value of goods and services produced within Illinois – due to TRS pension and benefit payments” (The Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois).

Until people realize there is a systematic deconstruction of the middle class in Illinois (and across America), unethical legislators will continue to decimate middle-class citizens in exchange for corporate bankrolling. Members of IEA, IFT and AFSCME, et al. must tell their union leadership they will support them, but only if their rights and benefits are protected. 

The IEA, IFT and AFSCME, et al. must remain influential and relevant. Making any concessions will demoralize the membership and weaken the unions. Enfeebled unions would invite further attacks on public employees and would make unions and their membership irrelevant. All of us must remember that we cannot trust the Illinois General Assembly; we have 73 years of evidence that supports this opinion.

What unions must do is demand a pension debt restructuring and structural revenue reform. The state’s deficits are not the result of its state employees. They are the result of corrupt, incompetent politicians and business leaders in Illinois. 

-Glen Brown

Please become informed and review the following constitutional analysis: http://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2012/05/sb-1673-is-without-legal-and-moral.html

Please read “House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 49 Will Diminish Public Pensions”: http://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2012/06/house-joint-resolution-constitutional.html

Consider “Who Plunders the Middle Class”: http://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2012/07/who-is-plundering-middle-class.html

“Ralph Martire: Cutting benefits won’t fix the state’s pension crisis,” The State Journal-Register July 3, 2012: http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x1762349853/Ralph-Martire-Cutting-benefits-won-t-fix-state-s-pension-crisis?zc_p=0

For the complete TRS report: http://trs.illinois.gov/subsections/general/PUB09.pdf

Pension Cost Shift

If Illinois policymakers pass a bill to shift its responsibility of paying the “normal costs” to local school districts, many school districts would not be able to afford to pay these costs, even if they are “phased in for a few years.”

“A shift would create a new and large financial requirement for school districts, which would be difficult for many to meet. Moreover, Illinois ranks last in terms of state spending on K-12 education, and school districts are already relying heavily on local property taxes. Shifting the state’s normal cost obligation onto school districts would only mean that an even higher proportion of school districts’ revenue would come from property taxes.

“[Furthermore,] property tax bases would not be sufficient to absorb any shift in the employer normal cost for teacher pensions…  School districts are demographically and financially varied, and it would be difficult to impose a uniform normal cost shift on them… Illinois ranks last in terms of state spending on K-12 education, and school districts are already relying heavily on local property taxes… While shifting the state’s normal cost obligations onto school districts may provide some relief to the state’s budget, it will not mitigate these financial obligations and will instead push them onto school districts that, on average, already derive the majority of their revenue from local sources” (The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, March 2012).

What would be other probable effects? In cash-strapped school districts, of which there are many, teachers would not receive increases in their salaries; many teachers would lose their jobs; student programs would be reduced or eliminated; class sizes would increase; it would be more difficult to recruit, as well as retain and attract, the best teaching candidates… (Education Sector Policy Briefs).

The public school system in Illinois would be jeopardized; the public school teacher’s dignity and guaranteed retirement security would be imperiled, and their students’ right to be taught by the very best teachers available in Illinois would be at risk.

Approximately one-third of the total pension payment is the normal costs; the other two-thirds of the payment is the interest owed on the debt that the state created for not fully funding the pension system for almost six decades. To transfer the normal costs of the teachers’ retirement system to the school districts is to diminish the state’s role in providing income retirement security to its public employees.  

-Glen Brown

Read commentary on Madigan's notion of “Responsibility”