The Pennsylvania School Boards Association has started a brand new PSBA blog. As of Christmas Eve there were three posts, all dealing with a pension reform bill proposed by PSBA and scheduled to be introduced in January.

The bill would create a hybrid pension plan with some features of a defined benefit plan and some of a defined contribution plan. Public school employees are now under a defined benefit plan (meaning that they are guaranteed a fixed amount of pension based on their salary history, no matter what happens to PSERS investments). They’ll be grandfathered in, but new employees would be hired under the hybrid plan. The proposed bill has been endorsed by Rep. Glenn Grell (R-Cumberland) and Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming).

It’s good to see PSBA using a blog to communicate. There are 4500 school directors in Pennsylvania, and we need lots of ways to keep in touch. (Confession…I hadn’t even noticed the PSBA blog until Jim Butt called it to my attention. By the way, Jim has a nice post on Act 1 at his own blog.)