Pension plan an undue burden on taxpayers

Let’s see if I understand this:

I was a teacher for 27 years — 25 in the public school system.

I mandatorily paid into the state retirement pension system the required amount that was automatically taken from my paycheck each month. I had no choice.

The school districts I worked for paid the matching amount set by law into the state retirement system. They had no choice.

The state of Illinois borrowed from that system and did not fund its share into the teachers’ retirement. It made that choice.

For 37 years, my tax dollars went right back into the school systems that my own children attended because I lived in that elementary school district and high school district where I eventually ended up teaching.

Because I still live in the district, I am heavily taxed for the schools in which I have had no children attending for at least the last 10 years. To me, it’s still worth it because I know the value of a good education.

State Rep. Elaine Nekritz and others proposed that the state pension burden be placed back into the school districts’ hands. Whose hands are those anyway? Is there some magic fund from which this money will rise? Are schools not funded by tax dollars? Am I wrong in saying that all that money I’ve already paid out is going to be asked to be paid for again by the same people who already paid in more than their fair share and by the already heavily taxed residents of those districts and controlled by the very same people who broke the system in the first place? (Yes, that is a run-on sentence.)

What am I missing here?

Tania DePhillips

Arlington Heights