Former state school employee McKissick paid in $178K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $4.45M in retirement

Former state school employee Karen McKissick, who retired in May 2018, saved $178,223 toward a pension over 41 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, McKissick would collect as much as $4.45 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes McKissick received $93,468 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 2 years of retirement, McKissick will have already received $189,740 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.