The anti-union Illinois Policy Institute issued a report that claimed most teachers in Illinois don’t pay their share of the TRS contribution.
By any standard, this is a Big Lie.
It is a lie because it misreads what many contracts say. A typical teacher contract will say that the board will “pay” or “pick up” the TRS contribution, which only means that they will send the teachers’ payments to TRS. Teachers do not literally send a check to TRS anymore than other workers send a check to the Social Security Administration.
In some cases where the local district does actually pay part of the TRS contribution, the salaries teachers receive are typically lower.
But none of that mattered to the lazy news department at the Chicago ABC affiliate.
Chuck Goudie, who laughingly claims to be the ABC investigative reporter, did a breathless report simply repeating the false talking points of the IPI.
No comment from TRS was requested by the crack investigative reporter. No reaction from the IEA. Goudie didn’t even have time to ask a teacher.
When the folks at IEA Region 28 contacted ABC, they got this response:
We’d like to address your concern by clarifying our story about the Illinois Policy Institute’s report regarding teacher pension reform. The point of our story was to make public what the IPI would be releasing: a detailed study that concludes that most school districts could save money if the state stopped paying, the districts paid the “employer share” of teacher pension costs and all teachers paid the full 9.4% “employee share”.
While researching the Illinois State Board of Education’s annual Illinois Teacher Salary Study, IPI found that public school teachers in two-thirds of all school districts don’t contribute the full 9.4% all to their pension funds and many contribute nothing at all.
IPI’s report breaks down all 866 district pension information based on Teachers’ Retirement System and Illinois State Board of Education records submitted to the state. That data included the “percentage of teacher pension pick up covered by the board (out of 9.4%)”. According to IPI, that data shows that “64% of school districts pick up some or all of the teachers’ portions of pension contributions.”You can read the report yourself at http://illinoispolicy.org/playingfavorites
ABC 7 did not contribute to the IPI’s study, we reported their study’s conclusions.
We hope this addresses your concern and we thank you for your viewership.
But ABC compounds the lies that Goudie reported with another lie.
They didn’t report this as simply the result of the IPI study. They stated it as fact.
School districts may actually save money if the state of Illinois stops paying into teacher pension funds, according to a study released Thursday. School districts cried foul when Governor Pat Quinn recently proposed the state stop contributing the employer’s share to teacher pension funds, but the ABC7 I-Team has learned those districts may actually save money by doing so.
ABC news makes Fox actually look fair and balanced by comparison.
Want to let Chicago’s ABC news department know what you think? Do it here.
Fred Klonsky 
I’m going to send my report to ABC concluding that the sky is green and the moon is made of cheese. I expect them to simply report on my report given that vetting my claims is outside their purview as a news organization
Kudos to Region 28 who stepped up to DO THE WORK THAT THE IEA LEADERSHIP SHOULD BE DOING!
Hey Fred –
This is what I wrote to abc7 “news” yesterday:
Your story titled “Intelligence Report: Most Illinois teachers pay little or nothing toward retirement accounts” includes false information. All Illinois teachers in the TRS system pay 9.4% of their salary toward TRS retirement. Some districts negotiate some of this expense along with their compensation package just as health insurance costs might be bargained. The ISBE website states “Salaries include tax-sheltered retirement contribution paid or deposited by the district on behalf of the teachers to the Teachers’ Retirement System.” The districts collect the money out of teacher paychecks and send it in to the state.
Just as any employer pays to the government half of their employee social security costs, teachers in the State of Illinois expect their employer, the state, to pay their agreed upon amount. You may want to check into the history of TRS and how the state begged off of social security back in the 40’s so they could collect the money themselves. The savings to the state by not paying into SS has been huge. They never would have been able to borrow from SS like they have from TRS, either. A district will pay what they believe is suitable for a teacher in that district. Many value having teachers live in their communities. That would not be possible in more affluent communities without high teacher salaries. The districts did not set up this system. The state did. It worked until the state abused their authority and shirked their duty to contribute their agreed upon share.
I am extremely disappointed in your poor research and shoddy reporting. Rather than clarify a divisive issue you have further inflamed the taxpayers with false and misleading information.
I received the same response as everybody else.
Today I responded:
You are ignoring negotiated compensation packages. Some School Boards agree to contribute part of a teacher’s required 9.4% as part of their compensation. It is paid either directly or indirectly by the teacher.
I read the entire IPI report before I wrote to you the first time. It also ignores this fact.
Rather than “investigate” this issue you parrot IPI’s bias against the teachers and the districts who hire them to inflame the general public over an issue of which most do not have full knowledge. You did not portray your report as “reporting their study’s conclusions.” You made it seem as though you were revealing a scandal.
Collective bargaining allows these agreements. Perhaps that is why some believe unions should be decertified. This is what appears to be behind your report. You make it seem as though teachers have some sweet deal. Teachers are public servants paid entirely through public funds. Your goal seems to be to suggest that the state should reduce teachers’ compensation.
How pathetic. Somebody needs to get educated.
Kris
I sent them part of a picture of my pay stub along with the message that they should actually investigate claims before presenting them.
Wow… they’re just aggressively misrepresenting things. Chuck Goudie, Liar.
This report by ABC is blatantly false and has mislead countless people. A retraction is in order.
I don’t know if they came from Goudie but whoever replied just doesn’t get it:
My message: Nice try, Goudie. You still screwed up. If a school district ‘pays’ part or all of a teacher’s TRS contribution it is because they negotiated a smaller salary. I’ll try to explain it the way I would to my 8-year-old grandson. Teacher compensation is a pie. At negotiations, we decide how that pie will be divided. How much for salary, insurance, TRS contribution? The pie doesn’t get bigger. It’s just cut up differently. IPI is doing a good job of pulling the wool over your eyes. I’m really disappointed in you. Try again.
The reply: There is a difference. When teachers pay their TRS contribution, the money comes from the employee (the teacher). When the district pays the teacher TRS contribution, the money comes directly from taxpayers.
My response: Doesn’t ALL teacher compensation come from the tax payer? The entire pie comes from the tax payer, doesn’t it?
Follow up from ABC7 to my previous post. Still doesn’t get it:
No. When teachers pay their TRS contribution, it comes from the their salaries. When the district pays, it comes from the taxpayers. This is why unions negotiate to have the district pay part or all of the TRS contribution, so teachers won’t have to pay for it.