How state pension subsidies undermine equity

Abstract

When policy advocates debate how best to ensure equity in public education funding, the topic of teacher pension reform rarely comes up. But, in fact, pensions represent a very large and fast-growing source of education spending, much of it distributed in ways that are, in a number of states, anything but equitable. When states subsidize teacher pensions directly, rather than expecting local school systems to fund those pensions themselves, affluent districts tend to benefit the most.