Exploring Trends in Teacher Pensions
Introduction
With declining enrollment and the end of emergency federal funding straining school budgets across the country, it’s never been more important for policymakers to understand and reckon with the state of their teacher pension systems — which represent a large and growing share of education spending. In this blog series, Chad Aldeman — an education writer, former Bellwether senior associate partner, and founding editor of TeacherPensions.org — analyzes new data on the state of teacher pensions and offers ideas to help policymakers direct more education dollars into classrooms and teachers’ pockets. You can read more of Bellwether’s work on teacher pensions at TeacherPensions.org.
Pension debt crowds out other education spending — including raises for teachers.
Chad Aldeman
Chad Aldeman
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the media warned of teacher retirements hitting “record-breaking heights.” Did the trends hold?
Chad Aldeman
Teacher pension plans assume that new members will continue to be added to the system as it grows over time. But what if those assumptions are no longer correct?
Chad Aldeman
