A Jefferson County Public Schools teacher has filed a lawsuit against the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System over its lack of funding. Plaintiff and DuPont Manual High School teacher Randolph Wieck says the system that supports over 140,000 teachers in Kentucky is at least $20 billion dollars in debt.
“We have raced to the bottom and we’re neck and neck with the worst funded teachers plan in the country,” Wieck said.
The KTRS pension is funded at around 50 percent. Both the Federal Government Accounting Office and the rating service Standard and Poor’s show Kentucky’s pension system is not sustainable.
“You don’t actually have to wait for the bus to hit you to experience danger,” Wieck said. “And that is what is happening to Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System. It is being damaged every year.”
The state legislature is not poised to discuss budget issues during the 2015 general assembly, but Wieck says Kentucky has violated its duty to keep the pension system solvent. The latest pension report is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks.
