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Solving teacher retirement system’s shortfall would cost billions
When Gov. Jerry Brown talks about paying down the state’s “wall of debt,” he doesn’t mention the state teachers’ retirement system. And yet the towering $73 billion unfunded shortfall in the state pension fund for teachers and administrators, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, makes Brown’s wall, at about $30 billion, look like a picket fence. On Wednesday, at a joint legislative information hearing, speakers from CalSTRS, groups representing educators, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office urged … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Funding and Taxation, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Pensions
CalSTRS board to forward options for saving teacher pensions
Later this week the board of the California State Teachers Retirement System, or CalSTRS, will forward to the Legislature a report laying out options for raising higher contributions into the pension system to ensure its long-term viability. The Legislature has avoided action for a decade, and Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget forecast for education, with healthy projections for revenue, doesn’t take into account the daunting cost of teachers’ pensions on the expense side of the ledger. The remedies won’t … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Pensions
California teachers retirement fund threat triggers sale of gun company
Less than a day after the California teachers pension fund threatened to withdraw its investment, a major private equity firm has announced that it will sell Freedom Group, a company it formed that includes the manufacturer of the rifle used by Adam Lanza to massacre 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Quick Hits, Teacher Pensions
Reform by the ounce, unfunded pension debt by the pound
The pension reforms passed in June, paring back the benefits for new teachers and administrators, will knock off $189 million per year from the additional payments taxpayers must make to keep the California State Teachers’ Retirement System solvent over the next 30 years. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this represents only about 6 percent of the extra $3.25 billion annually that CalSTRS actuaries are saying is needed to erase the system’s current … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, Teacher Pensions
CalSTRS estimates $22.7 billion savings from pension reform
The pension reforms that the Legislature passed before skipping town on Friday will save the California State Teachers’ Retirement System $22.7 billion over 30 years, according to a preliminary analysis that CalSTRS released on Wednesday. But CalSTRS administrators cautioned that most of the savings won’t be achieved for decades, because reduced pension benefits will affect only employees hired after Jan. 1, 2013. And the savings won’t reduce the Legislature’s need to deal with the current $65 billion deficit, caused when returns on investments tanked in 2008 and failed to fully recover. “We have been working for some time to raise awareness of our funding shortfall, the cost of waiting to address it, and the ultimate risk failing to do so presents to the state General Fund,” said CalSTRS Chief Executive Officer Jack … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Quick Hits, Teacher Pensions
Pension reform: top-paid administrators to take biggest hit
The retirement age for new teachers will be pushed back two years; they’ll have to fork over about another 1 percent of their pay into the retirement system. And their bosses – principals and administrators – will see a ceiling of $132,120 as the portion of their pay used to calculate retirement pay. Those in the highest-paid jobs, earning $200,000 plus, may see pensions reduced by tens of thousands of dollars. These are the primary changes … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Pensions, Teacher Unions
Joan Buchanan to chair Assembly Ed
Assemblymember Joan Buchanan, a Democrat from Contra Costa County who served on the board of the San Ramon Valley Unified School District for nearly two decades, will run the Assembly Education Committee, as of tomorrow. Assuming she wins reelection to a third term in November, she’ll chair the committee when the Legislature returns in January. Buchanan will replace Julia Brownley, a Santa Monica Democrat who’s in a tight race for Congress. Assembly Speaker John Pérez announced changes in Assemby leadership and committee chairs yesterday. A Democrat from Alamo with business experience, elected in a swing district, Buchanan has parted with her party on some business issues and has backed changes in public pensions opposed by organized labor. At the same time, she opposed SB 1530, which would have made it easier to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Kindergarten and Preschool, Legislature, Bills, Quick Hits, Teacher Pensions, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
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