ILL-inois: Single day of substitute teaching qualifies two union lobbyists for teacher pensions

Why isn't the OccupyChicago movement protesting this abomination?

From the Chicago Tribune:

Two lobbyists with no prior teaching experience were allowed to count their years as union employees toward a state teacher pension once they served a single day of subbing in 2007, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has found.

Steven Preckwinkle, the political director for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and fellow union lobbyist David Piccioli were the only people who took advantage of a small window opened by lawmakers a few months earlier.

The legislation enabled union officials to get into the state teachers pension fund and count their previous years as union employees after quickly obtaining teaching certificates and working in a classroom. They just had to do it before the bill was signed into law.

Preckwinkle's one day of subbing qualified him to become a participant in the state teachers pension fund, allowing him to pick up 16 years of previous union work and nearly five more years since he joined. He's 59, and at age 60 he'll be eligible for a state pension based on the four-highest consecutive years of his last 10 years of work.

The Tribune believes Preckwinkle could collect a yearly pension of $108,000 a year, more than double what the average teacher gets. Preckwinkle earned $93 for the subbing gig. Both men could collect more than $1 million from the well-deserved pensions, the Trib adds.

Illinois leads the nation in unfunded pension liabilities.

Related post:

ILL-inois: Union big shots double and triple dipping on pensions

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