Pension series points finger at politicians

Regarding the Daily Herald's excellent, in-depth series on the public education financial situation in Illinois, it needs to be made very clear that we find ourselves in this mess for one reason only: State government, decade after decade, has failed to meet its obligation to the teacher retirement system, to the point that Illinois has the worst pension funding record of any state in the nation, at a paltry 54 percent.

If these funds had been properly invested, instead of diverted for any number of unrelated, politically expedient purposes, there would be no crisis today.

By contrast, the teachers have met 100 percent of their obligation for the past 70 years, annually contributing nearly 10 percent of their income to the system.

If anything in this series took me aback at all, it would have to be the fact that the average annual pension for a retired classroom teacher (not administrator), who has dedicated 30 years of service to the community, is only around $43,000.

What we could really use now is a series thanking teachers for all that they do.

Thorn Randall

Libertyville