THE TRUTH IS THAT PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS KNOW THAT IT IS MUCH, MUCH HARDER TO REFORM THE PENSIONS AND OTHER BENEFITS FOR WORKERS WHO HAVE ALREADY RETIRED THAN IT IS TO CHANGE THE GAME FOR CURRENT EMPLOYEES.

Early retirement doesn't SAVE the taxpayer money. It only pushes the payments into the future. Why on earth would anyone believe that giving a public sector worker a financial incentive to retire earlier,  and thus collect a pension longer, saves anything? It also costs more to replace a retired worker for a longer period of time and so eclipses any so-called savings from hiring a worker at a lower tier of salary and benefits. Anything else is a lie perpetrated by greedy unions and politicians.

The unions also defend the practice by putting forward "studies" that show it's also a good thing for the students, because, after all, "it's really all for the kids."

Here's an example from an article in 2014. It's long but you get the idea if you only read the first few paragraphs. 

http://educationnext.org/early-retirement-payoff/Early Retirement: Always Touted as a "Savings" but is it?