Pa. school pension fund posts 14.6% return

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania's mammoth retirement fund for teachers and other school workers is on sounder footing thanks to a 14.6 percent return on its investments for the year that ended June 30.

The Public School Employees Retirement System said Monday that its investments added more than $6 billion over that year and far exceeded the 8 percent assumed rate of return.

But the fund is averaging only about 3 percent for the last five years, and 3.5 percent over the last decade.

It serves nearly 280,000 active employees and 179,000 retirees.

It has about $46 billion in net assets, and calls itself the country's 17th largest state-sponsored defined benefit public pension fund.