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South Cook News

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Former state school employee Swacker paid in $78K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $1.49M in retirement

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Former state school employee Karen Swacker, who retired in May 2018, saved $77,969 toward a pension over 24 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Swacker would collect as much as $1.49 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes South Cook News.

The projection assumes Swacker received $31,325 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Swacker will have already received $96,823 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

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