PSERS and its troubles - A guide to the woes facing Pa.’s biggest pension plan Joseph N. DiStefano, Craig R. McCoy, The Philadelphia Inquirer
For the last month, the state’s largest pension fund has been embroiled in a scandal of its own making.
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The fund’s board admitted on March 12 that it had made a potentially costly mistake, endorsing an inflated figure for its return on investments, an error that could affect future funding for one of the state’s most expensive programs.
The plan oversees the pensions for around 250,000 retired teachers and other local school workers, and an equal number of working educators who pay into it. It has been underfunded since state leaders in the early 2000s boosted benefits without putting aside money to pay for them, leaving a deficit that has grown to more than $40 billion, despite growing public subsidies. PSERS managers have invested aggressively to fill the gap; poor results have sparked increasing