"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:JhpJb.727709$Tr4.1877797@attbi_s03...
One of the reasons -- maybe the primary reasons -- states like teachers
in
their 50s to retire is that they can be replaced by fresh new teachers
just
out of college at starting salaries much less than those the veterans
were
getting. It actually saves the states money.

Hmmm. Not sure I see the math here.

While the state may save, say, half of the older teacher's salary (let's
say
my sister was making $45,000 -- so they'll cut it by half in retirement,
to
$22.5K) they then have to pay a new teacher what, $25K to start, plus
benefits?

Thus, we've lost a few grand in the mix.

Of course, "retirement pay" comes out of a different bucket of cash in the
state's budget then "teacher's salary", so ON PAPER they LOOK like they
"saved the taxpayers some money"...

More typical gubmint accounting, is my hunch.

If anyone thinks Enron's accounting was flakey, take a look at government
accounting. Primarily "cash basis", there is no real accounting for
long-term liabilities, only "estimates".

While Social Security is failing fast, the government retirement system
(which is paid out of current revenues) is looking at unfunded liabilities
of $9 to $14 TRILLION.