On average, to earn a full pension, a teacher must remain in the same state or district for 25 years — a condition that less than half of teachers nationally will meet. In Illinois, where the vesting period for the pension system is 10 years of employment, only half of new teachers will ever vest in the system. And only 1 out of 5 teachers in Illinois will ever break even from their pension plan.

Investors want comprehensive plans that set up the city for more revenue and lower costs going forward. Chicago’s fiscal woes don’t end in 2020. The city is struggling with $30 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. And its required payments to the cash-strapped retirement system ramp up this year and keep climbing, topping $2 billion in 2022, city documents show.

Her goal: To curry favor with progressives and organized labor by intervening in a teachers strike she really doesn’t know much about, intervening against Lightfoot—an African-American woman and a progressive herself who understands (in a way Warren doesn’t) that driving Chicago Public Schools back to near-bankruptcy will only harm the city’s children.

Warren seemed oblivious to that.

“I’m here to stand with every one of the people who stand for our children every day,” Warren said to thunderous applause and cheers.

Ms. Lightfoot will deliver her first budget to the city council Wednesday. Her efforts to make the math work as Chicago’s pension payments increase rapidly will provide a window into the challenge of addressing the burdensome legacy costs weighing on many older American cities.

The chief financial officer of Cook County Health system was given a $60,000 pay raise this year, lifting his salary by 25% from $240,000 to $300,000, according to a recent watchdog report.

Comment: See our own article on this fishy proposal linked here.