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A new report says the West Virginia Teachers Retirement System is the most underfunded teacher pension plan in the USA, according to the Charleston Gazette.
The report, released by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research,
analyzed 59 state and local teacher pension plans.
It says WV's system is only about 31 percent funded.
That's well below the estimate provided by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board, says the Gazette.
They claim the TRS was 50 percent funded, with assets and unfunded liabilities each at $4.1 billion.
The report says that only three teacher pension plans in the country are better than 75 percent funded.
The report is titled, "Unfunded Teacher Pensions: It's Worse Than You Think."
The report says virtually all states are underestimating their unfunded liabilities.
In 2008, the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill that ultimately resulted in nearly 15,000 teachers and school personnel transferring out of the state's Teachers Defined Contribution system and into the TRS, a defined-benefits plan.
"No matter what path pension reform may take, state governments have no excuse not to admit the extent of their unfunded liabilities," the report states. | 
