This study focuses on the benefits of early retirement as a policy to ease the adjustment process as public school districts and state universities encounter the problem of declining enrollments. Early retirement as one means of reduction in force, and as a means of saving money, has been adopted by 36 Illinois school districts. This paper examines a retirement policy that allows members of the Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago and the Teachers' Retirement System of Illinois who have 20 or more years of service to retire at age 55 without a discount of their pension annuities. (Author)