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Metro East Sun

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Former state school employee Smith paid in $124K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $2.21M in retirement

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Former state school employee Debra Smith, who retired in May 2016, saved $124,408 toward a pension over 26 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Smith would collect as much as $2.21 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes Metro East Sun.

The projection assumes Smith received $46,430 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Smith will have already received $143,511 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

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