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Take a look at the book "Boomerang" by Michael Lewis. Public sector pensions in the new recession age of low state income are bankrupting communities all over the country. They are looking for guarantees and working conditions that private sector employees are rapidly becoming impatient with. Pay them more money (although Chicago teacher's are extremely well-paid, and most of them deserve it), and let them set up a 401K and figure it out themselves, like the rest of us. My own school district superintendent is responsible for 4 schools and makes $300,000 plus pension. Most of his duties he is able to push down to willing administrators. State politicians in Illinois have also been raiding the chicken coop, and with the rate of tax avoidance, reduced property taxes and tax-free corporations - there just isn't the money that used to be there, and saying you "deserve" it or it was "promised" to you doesn't manufacture the money out of thin air. Emmanuel isn't the problem.