Earlier this month, The New York Times ran a story called “Higher Education in Illinois Is Dying” and cited rising pension costs as a major factor in the state’s budget woes. Similarly, in our recent report on pensions in the state of Illinois, we noted Illinois taxpayers are now contributing more toward teacher pensions alone than for all of the state’s public colleges and universities combined.
Unfortunately, Illinois is not alone. Like the insatiable Pac-Man, pensions are eating further and further into state and local education budgets, eating up dollars that could be spent on lots of other things.
