The Three R’s of Teacher Pension Funding
Redistribution, Return, and Risk
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9732158 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert M Costrell (University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 91-97 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Educational Researcher (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-189X • E-ISSN: 1935-102X |
| Publisher | American Educational Research Association (AERA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3102/0013189x211027534 |
| OpenAlex | W3099662856 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
How are teacher pension benefits funded? Under traditional plans, the full cost of career teachers’ benefits far exceeds the contributions designated for them. First, some contributions made for the benefits of short-term teachers are redistributed to fund the benefits of career teachers. Second, pension plans assume rosy returns on their investments, which push costs onto future teachers and taxpayers. Finally, the risk inherent in providing guaranteed pensions carries other costs, tangible and intangible, notably including the nontrivial risk of insolvency, which would dramatically raise mandated contributions and endanger future teacher benefits. I quantify these three components of the gap between benefits and contributions using the same metric as annual contributions. Illustrating with the California plan, I find the full cost of a career teacher’s annual accumulation of benefits can be as high as 46.6% of earnings, nearly triple the corresponding contributions of 17.5%.
Actuarial science · Business · Earnings · Economics · Labour economics · Pension · Political science · Rate of return · Redistribution (election · Finance · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Retirement, Disability, and Employment
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |