According to "Doing the Math on Teacher Pensions: How to Protect Teachers and Taxpayers," just published by the National Council on Teacher Quality, "state teacher pension systems had a total of $499 billion in unfunded liabilities" in 2014, up by $100 billion since its 2012 study. On a gloomy note, they add that "the debt costs spread out across the K-12 student population amount to more than $10,000 per student and growing." This can only be seen as bad news for beleaguered municipalities with tight budgets.

Concurrent with funding pressures, researchers explain that numerous state sponsors "are also making it harder for teachers to receive benefits."

Sprinkled throughout the report is a reference to fairness (or lack thereof) and limited flexibility, with occasional references to the advantages of offering a defined contribution plan to eligible educators. Few defined benefit plans were identified as being sufficiently portable or moderate in terms of what teachers were asked to contribute. Another cited flaw was the factoring of years of service instead of age only as a determinant of when one could retire. Long vesting periods and restrictions as to when employer contributions could be withdrawn by employees are other weak spots. The inability for teachers to purchase service credits for "prior teaching or approved leave" led to poor rankings for some states.

With a pension grade of A, Alaska tops the list. Mississippi lags with a pension grade of F. Too many states for comfort had a C, C-, D+ or D assessment. Fourth from the bottom is Kentucky with a grade of D-, accounting perhaps for its headlines about legislative reform. In "Ky. lawmakers demand reforms to teacher pension plan" (Louisville Courier-Journal, January 1, 2015 ) reporter Mike Wynn tallies unfunded liabilities at $14 billion, "on top of the $17 billion funding gap at Kentucky Retirement Systems." It is no surprise that the Bluegrass State is under pressure to implement change. In addition, a putative class action suit has been filed by a local history teacher against the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System, "alleging their administrators have been negligent in protecting teachers' pensions from chronic underfunding by the state and bad investments..."

With low scores, large financial gaps and investment risk-taking on the rise for more than a few state teacher retirement plans, somebody may have to stay after school and write "I will change" one hundred times.