Value of teacher pension plans at ‘lowest point in modern history’

Most of the country’s K-12 public school teachers are not being served well by their retirement plans, as changes to state plans since the Great Recession have undone the decades of progress for educators’ retirement benefits that marked the second half of the 20th century, according to a new report.

The Retirement Security Report, which is produced by the Equable Institute, is an assessment of the quality of retirement benefits for public sector employees. A recent edition of the report, “The National Landscape of Teacher Retirement Benefit Security,” analyzed retirement benefits for the country’s K-12 public school teachers, exploring whether educators have access to adequate income during their post-working years. The authors define adequate retirement income as at least 70% replacement of pre-retirement income. The Equable Institute is a bipartisan nonprofit that works with public retirement system stakeholders to solve pension funding challenges.

According to the report, those who work their entire careers as teachers and leave at retirement age enjoy solid retirement benefits – and most everyone else does not.