Daily Republic AP Exclusive: Top school retirees benefited from cash out

SACRAMENTO — For nearly a decade, California’s top-paid school administrators got to collect six-figure lump sum cash payments in addition to their pensions by taking advantage of a little-known legislative provision that was intended to help retain and recruit teachers during the dot-com boom.

The program, known as the “partial lump sum” payment option, was approved by the state Legislature in 2000 to boost the state’s teaching ranks at a time when California was projected to face a teacher shortage. The benefit, which is allowed in some form in about a dozen states, lets retiring educators tap into their pension accounts for a large cash payment in exchange for a reduced monthly pension check.

Yet many who took advantage of the benefit from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System turned out to be highly paid administrators who already stood to receive generous monthly pension checks, according to data obtained by The Associated Press under a California Public Records Act request.

via AP Exclusive: Top retirees benefited from cash out.

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