W.Va. Teacher Pension Quandary

Legislators meeting in Martinsburg for their monthly interim session are weighing ways to help teachers whose 401(k)-style individual retirement accounts simply haven't yielded sufficient benefits.

As The Associated Press reports, an actuarial consultant has outlined five scenarios through which the state could allow these account holders to merge voluntarily with the state's remaining teacher pension fund, the Teachers Retirement System.

Each option could actually save the state money _ but only if all 19,851 account holders agree to the terms. That's deemed highly unlikely, as 44 percent of them failed to take part in a recent election on the merger issue, 39 percent of those who did voted against merging and more than a 1,000 sued (successfully, thus far) to block the merger.

The Journal of Martinsburg is also out in force to cover the interims, with stories here, here and here.