Retirement

Harvard economist Martin Feldstein offers Barron’s readers suggestions for addressing an unsustainable system of Social Security. If it isn’t politically possible to raise the tax rate to support future retirees with the current structure of benefits, there are only two options to avoid a collapse of the entire…

New ID cards from the State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees made at least one teacher angry. What exactly do the cards and accompanying letter say? State government insures itself and contracts with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina to administer the program. Legislators have never…

The left-wing media establishment is busy focusing on teacher pay, but they should spend some time talking about teacher benefits. Salaries were a $5.9 billion state expenditure last year.  The latest expenditure reports published by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction shows that $2.2 billion (25.6 percent of…

In Education Next, Chad Aldeman, a principal at Bellwether Education Partners and the editor of TeacherPensions.org, writes, The escalating costs are poised to raise the profile of these post-employment health benefits. And the ensuing debate is sure to raise broader questions about what districts owe their retirees and…

Get paid now to take parental leave in exchange for deferring Social Security payments later. It sounds like a simple and “budget neutral” to help women earn more in their careers while getting their children off to a good start. Kristin Shapiro, Andrew Biggs, and others have argued on…

New York’s state comptroller divested that state’s pension funds from two private prison companies that operate immigration detention centers. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System faced pressure from “hundreds of educators” among its 933,410 members to do the same, but has opted to keep its investment and “to communicate with…

State lawmakers have left Raleigh for the summer and don’t plan to return until late November. Becki Gray recaps their main achievements during the 2018 legislative session for the next edition of Carolina Journal Radio. Terry Stoops questions public school advocates’ claims that the Republican-led General Assembly fails to…

Michael Tanner uses a National Review Online column to emphasize the long-term negative outlook for American entitlement programs. If you blinked last week, you may have missed the latest report from the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare systems. But for the sake of our children and…