A pension fund setup to pay lifetime benefits to millions of retired teachers is nearly a billion dollars in the red. Now there is concern that shortfall could put taxpayers on the hook for picking up the tab to balance the books.
The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research claims most teacher retirement funds fall short to the tune of a $932.5 billion gap nationally.
The problem: researchers claim funds are "low-balling" what they anticipate to be the cost of paying future benefits, because they are banking on the idea that stock values will rise a lot before they have to pay out.
It's a gamble they claim is overly ambitious and could create a problem when it's your turn to cash out. Nationally most funds claim to be 78% funded. These researchers are saying the actual funding there right now only covers 54%.
Fox59 Weather Alerts | Fox59 News Alerts | Fox59 on Twitter | Fox59 on Facebook
In Indiana, the teachers retirement fund claims to be 42% funded while these numbers say it's really more like 35%. California's state teacher's retirement system has fired back saying the study uses unrealistic accounting tricks.
