Around the country, pension funds, big and small, public and private, have been embracing alternative investments to add a little oomph to their returns. Oklahoma’s state funds have been among the more enthusiastic: The Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System had 5 percent of its assets in private equity and more than 23 percent in hedge funds at the end of March.

Oklahoma can claim another, more dubious distinction; its seven pension systems are among the most troubled in the nation, with an aggregate funding ratio — assets over liabilities — of just 60.5 percent, compared with the 85 percent public-plan average estimated by Wilshire Associates. Their total unfunded liability of some $10 billion comes to nearly $3,000 for every citizen of the state.

Is a risk-taking investment approach a way out of Oklahoma’s pension woes? State Treasurer Scott Meacham doesn’t think so, as Senior Editor Steven Brull explains in this month’s cover story, “Ohhh-klahoma” (page 28). In February, Meacham’s office released a report recommending that the state legislature put $100 million into the Teachers’ Retirement System of Oklahoma, and consider issuing pension obligation bonds to bolster the state’s pensions. More controversially, it also opined that investing in private equity is “the equivalent to betting a trifecta on a horse race.”

Meacham made no headway with his solutions, and some critics dismissed his headline-grabbing comments as political grandstanding — he’s up for reelection in November — but his moves come at a critical time for pension funds and the alternative investment industry. Plenty of public pension plans are in funding holes and looking for ways out. They, and the retirees they’re protecting, want to be sure that the investment choices made by their states don’t pull up lame.