It’s happening all over the place…here’s an important short post by Daniel DiSalvo:
The Thomas B. Fordam Institute has a new report out analyzing how teacher retirement costs are squeezing school district budgets. The authors examine the Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Philadelphia school districts to estimate the impact of their pension and retiree healthcare obligations on constraining everything else these districts might want to do. By 2020, the Philadelphia school system–the worst off of the three districts studied–could be spending as much $2,361 per pupil on retiree costs alone–an increase of $1,923 from today. That will mean less money is likely to be available–even with tax hikes–for teacher salaries, new instructional tools, and more specialized classroom activities. The analysis chimes with a recent paper I wrote for the Manhattan Institute that examines many state and city budgets across the country.
