Illinois is not a well-run state.
This may be a fair enough point, but pensions and education are not 100% mutually exclusive domains of spending. Being a teaching is an extremely demanding job choice. Proactively managing the progress and behavior of 150 students, many of whom are frequently leaving and joining the group, is crazy stressful and difficult. The lure of the pension/not spending the golden years under a bridge is one of the few things that keeps many good teachers going. That, and the sense of reward from the few students who give a crap. Otherwise, they may as well take a generic job at MegaCorp that pays the same 45k/year. You get what you pay for.
