Communities across Illinois are being forced to cut local services and raise taxes to afford their pension payments, putting residents who rely on local government services at risk because of the inherent failures of defined-benefit plans.

Pensions punish government workers who leave state employment early. 401(k)s don’t.

Since 1998, more than 20,000 state university workers have opted into a 401(k)-style plan instead of the traditional pension plan.

Pennsylvania’s reform efforts mirror the national trend of modernizing public and private retirement systems with 401(k)-style defined-contribution plans.

More than 70 cents out of every new education dollar already goes to teacher retirement costs.