Do You Know What 'PSERS' Means? You Need To

PSERS stands for Public School Employees' Retirement System. It also represents the single biggest expense that the Tredyffrin-Easttown (T/E) and other Pennsylvania school districts have virtually no control over. It is one of the biggest reasons the T/E School District is faced with finding ways to close a projected $16 million budget shortfall over the next few years.

Among the local issues caused by the state-mandated pension expenses is whether to raise funds (through taxes and activities fees for examples) or cut other areas of the budget to pay the pension costs. Any decision could have a direct impact on property owners and school district families.

To help make sense of it all and to answer questions about PSERS, the Tredyffrin-Easttown School Board will host a public budget workshop for next Monday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m. at

The session will go over the district's current budget status and issues for the 2012-2013 and PSERS. Experts will be on hand to explain the realities facing the school board and to take questions from the public.

Local school districts have put out a call for the public to lobby Harrisburg to pick up more of the cost of the pensions. At the same time the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and other groups are calling for Harisburg to fund school vouchers and other programs that promote school choice.

State Sen. Andy Dinniman (D-19), state Rep. Warren Kampf (R-157), and state Rep. Duane Milne (R-167) will provide legislative perspective on PSERS.

Click here for a link to the full text of a press release issued by the T/E School District on the budget workshop.