Why Should Education Advocates Care About Pension Reform?

Last month I talked about teacher pensions on a panel at the annual summit of the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE-Network). In anticipation of the conference, I spent some time pondering my best arguments for why education advocates should invest their time and political capital in pensions, as opposed to everything else they might want to work on (like Common Core, teacher prep, charter schools, school funding, etc).

Although I do a lot of work on pensions, this is an ongoing internal debate for me personally, because I care deeply about these other things as well. So why do I, and why should education advocates, invest in pension reform? This is my argument, in a short PowerPoint form (above).

For anyone who has questions about teacher pensions or is interested in learning more about pensions in your state, sign up for our monthly newsletter, watch our 3-minute animated “explainer” video below, or reach out to us directly at teacherpensions-at-bellwethereducation-dot-org. We’d love to hear from you!

—Chad Aldeman

Chad Aldeman is a principal at Bellwether Education Partners.

This post originally appeared on TeacherPensions.org.

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