Teachers To Request $350-Million More For Pension Payouts

Officials from the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System say they need at least 350-million dollars more from next year's state budget to make their payments.  Officials told reporters with the Illinois News Network this week that the public teachers' retirement fund is only 40 percent funded, and would need almost 74-billion dollars to reach 100 percent.  Some state lawmakers say the pension system needs to be reformed instead, and that teachers' benefits have increased more than one-thousand percent in the last three decades, making them unaffordable.