Pension crisis looms as SC retirement system debt grows [View all]

Retirement is still a few months away for Byrnes High School biology teacher Teresa Schiltz, but she’s looking forward to the day when she can travel to Europe after a rewarding career.

Like thousands of other teachers, Schiltz, 56, has paid into and earned a pension over the years — a nest egg for retirement, and modest compensation for turning down a more lucrative career in private industry when she was younger.

“I look at my pension as the reward in the end for giving my life to education for the lesser salary I received,” she said.

But like many of the 321,000 retirees and active participants in South Carolina’s retirement system, Schiltz is concerned about reports that the system has a $21.3 billion debt that is expected to reach $23 billion soon.

Read more: http://www.goupstate.com/news/20161015/pension-crisis-looms-as-sc-retirement-system-debt-grows