“I’ve discussed this MANY times with teachers ... each and every one turned into a screaming lunatic upon hearing about pension alternatives.”
The hysteria in those conversations should convince the most stalwart defenders of public school teachers that they are in fact enemies of American taxpayers. Here in NJ they are an incestuous lot, marrying within their own ranks or some other public sector employees (cops refer to them as “holster-sniffers”); they are so far removed from the everyday drudgery of the taxpayers required to support them that they have lost public support (one of Governor Christie’s major accomplishments here - exposing them for the upper middle class parasites they are).
The debate ended in NJ when the Asbury Park Press released the salaries of every public school teacher in NJ years ago; you could look up their salaries and see that people crying poverty were being paid $85K annually for 180 days of work, 6.5 hours per day...and without getting results on top of that.
In Illinois, the teachers pension system is the worst shape because of pension spiking. Many teach for 25 years and then become an administrator for 5 years at double the salary. On a money purchase formula they would retire at lets say 50K instead of 100K. Illinois stopped the worst of it about 10 years ago, but the damage was done.
I have a friend who has been receiving $80,000 a year pension since she retired from teaching special ed. That is Tier One, supposedly, and the current retirees are not getting that much.