Public Education Pension Plans

For more than 45 years, the NEA has gathered in one place the most detailed information of large public education retirement plans, provided almost exclusively by the trustees of the plans themselves. 

With so much misinformation distributed by opponents of public pension plans, our goal is to serve as a reliable source of accurate information for those involved with pension and retirement security policy. 

Pensions are:

Good for kids and schools: Each and every student deserves to have dedicated, highly qualified teachers in the classroom. Parents must know that their children have a real equal opportunity to learn. Keeping experienced educators in the classroom improves instruction and creates stable environments for kids. Since pensions help retain workers, they make perfect sense for public education.

Preferred by educators: Educators overwhelmingly favor defined benefit plans like pensions over their defined contribution counterparts. Maintaining a sound and predictable pension plan for educators and education support professionals enables them to have retirement security after a career in public service. 

A benefit to our economy: According to the National Institute of Retirement Security, expenditures made from pension payments to retirees support 7.5 million jobs, $1.2 TRILLION in total economic output, and $202.6 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue. Every dollar paid out in pension benefits supported $2.13 in total economic output. That’s a good deal. 

More information about the economic impact of pensions, pensions in your state, and public educator pensions is available in the resources below.