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Lots of Chicago teachers call in sick when they are not sick. Just because they can. That sad fact lies behind a little noticed provision in the teachers’ new tentative contract. The teachers will be allowed to accumulate as many as 244 sick days, which they can put toward an earlier retirement with a full pension. Some teachers will be able to retire about a year and half early.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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According to the article, “CPS also will realize a savings as highly paid longtime teachers retire a little earlier and are replaced by more modestly paid new hires.” This is inaccurate for a number of reasons: 1) The retired teacher will now be pulling a pension one year earlier from a severely under-funded pension system 2) While that retired teacher collects 75% of his salary in retirement, his replacement earns for more than the 25% difference. 3) Taxpayers are now chipping in for retiree and employee health benefits Just because the cost is spread over multiple ledgers doesn’t mean any… Read more »
And won’t state payment of the “normal cost” simply be used to pay for otherwise unfunded retiree health? CPS stops paying higher cost for older teacher and the State pays that cost for the aging retire. A shell game within a shell game. And zero accountability for mis-government. The public doesn’t comprehend and most of the legislators don’t comprehend either. There is probably a relatively small group of pretty smart financial engineers (Rube Goldberg LLC) that initiates and propagates the fraud. However, if we happen to find them, they’ll be disclaimed and indemnified to the max. Dissimulation that is incomprehensible… Read more »
Come on’ Sun-Times, get with the program, don’t you see all the ‘we support teachers’ signs everywhere?