You are wrong in your assertion that teachers are not allowed to collect social security. I am a retired CPS teacher who is collecting social security because of other jobs that I have worked. You need to go to the social security website to see how much your social security will be reduced because of your public pension. Mine is reduced by 55%.
Jim
You are correct, Jim. If a teacher is vested in Social Security as a result of work prior or in addition to teaching they do receive some payout. The more you paid into TRS, the less you can draw from your Social Security account, no matter what you paid in.
Mine is reduced far more than your 55% for example, even though I didn’t begin teaching until I was in my mid-30s.
For a career changer, this is particularly punishing since I was never going to work long enough to max out on my TRS, and I lose a good portion of my Social Security. Retired’s point was that most people think of a pension in terms of the way it works in the private sector. There a pension is something that exists in addition to Social Security. But for teachers who never worked in the private sector, TRS is the only guaranteed retirement payment they are entitled to.
Fred Klonsky 
You are wrong in your assertion that teachers are not allowed to collect social security. I am a retired CPS teacher who is collecting social security because of other jobs that I have worked. You need to go to the social security website to see how much your social security will be reduced because of your public pension. Mine is reduced by 55%.
Jim
You are correct, Jim. If a teacher is vested in Social Security as a result of work prior or in addition to teaching they do receive some payout. The more you paid into TRS, the less you can draw from your Social Security account, no matter what you paid in.
Mine is reduced far more than your 55% for example, even though I didn’t begin teaching until I was in my mid-30s.
For a career changer, this is particularly punishing since I was never going to work long enough to max out on my TRS, and I lose a good portion of my Social Security.
Retired’s point was that most people think of a pension in terms of the way it works in the private sector. There a pension is something that exists in addition to Social Security. But for teachers who never worked in the private sector, TRS is the only guaranteed retirement payment they are entitled to.