It's not just Chrysler and the auto industry. From the Detroit News:
Schools are laying off teachers, scrapping programs and mothballing extracurricular activities to pay for the spiraling pension and health care bills of retirees -- some of whom qualify for generous benefits by skirting state retirement policies, often with the knowledge and assistance of the state office charged with administering the $3.5 billion program.
The impact could be devastating to public education in Michigan, the only state that makes its schools bear the entire burden of retiree pensions and health care. This year's bill -- an estimated $1,015 per student -- is more than schools spend on books, buses, computer technology and building maintenance combined. And it's going to get worse.
(via Carpe Diem)
One of my wife's (second, once removed? Distant, no matter) cousins is part of this problem.
She retired to Florida a few years ago without having worked long enough in the school system to get her full pension.
Now she flies to Michigan every winter, stays with a relative, and works 30 to 40 school days as a substitute teacher to get credit for having taught another "year."
Posted by: The Comedian | 05/16/2007 at 07:57 AM