Alex Rose provides the skinny on the pension crisis. This quote from Sen. Ted Erickson jumped out at me:

“One of the reasons people go into teaching is because they know that they have a decent pension at the end of it,” said Erickson. “And if we go to some other different system with a lesser kind of plan, will that still enable the schools to recruit good people to teach? I don’t know the answer to that.”

Please. Good teachers are born, not bribed into teaching by pension plans that are wildly better than those in the private sector. The educator class in this county is mediocre at best. Just as the quality of our political class is poor to mediocre at best.

Our "public servants" - teachers, state workers, and politicians - have colluded to game the system to the point where it's broke. And now they want to tell us that "Gee, if you cut our benefits you won't be able to attract people of our quality to go into teaching or run for office."

How about this: We'll risk it! Now go to work and start paring down these pensions to a size equal to what is offered in the private sector.