A good piece; the teachers’ unions have maintained a huge PR offensive focused mainly on current pay (which already is outlandish in and of itself), and they don’t want the pensions even discussed. However, the problem couldn’t be concealed from taxpayers because so much current revenue has to fund retirees from decades ago, leaving little for current services. Chris Christie waged a good fight against these unions, and capped property tax increases at 2% (they are already among the highest in the nation); now taxpayers and the companies that hire them (both expected to fund this government worker caste) are fleeing in droves, and the state is turning into a public assistance basketcase. The nail in the coffin for teachers was the Asbury Park Press releasing salaries for all teachers in NJ; people were shocked at how many of our “underpaid” teachers were making nearly $100K (or more) working 6.5 hours per day for 180 days per year (with lifetime employment and no consequences for failure).
My town just built a new “board of education” building, a sure sign taxpayers can expect more financial rape in the coming years.