SPRINGFIELD – Making local school districts pick up the employers’ portion of teacher retirement benefits could save more than $1.3 billion a year for Illinois’ beleaguered state treasury. It also could mean financial ruin for some local school districts, school administrators say.

Gov. Pat Quinn, with at least tentative nods from Democratic leaders in the Illinois General Assembly, has expressed support for the state shifting its obligation to local school districts. It would free up money needed to pay down a huge backlog of bills and to catch up with a decades-long shortchanging of public pension systems.

Local schools employ teachers, the thinking goes, so why shouldn’t schools pay the employer’s portion of their instructors’ retirement benefits?