Huge budget deficits and unfunded pension liabilities threaten the ability of California’s public schools to offer the education our kids deserve and our economy needs.
Thousands of California’s best teachers have received layoff notices. School programs are on the chopping block. State and local services are being cut as taxpayers are asked to pay more.
There is an alternative: Fix Pensions First.
If California taxpayers spent what our largest private corporations spend on retirement benefits, the state would save nearly $3 billion this year alone, enough to pay the salaries of 40,000 teachers. The savings achieved by school districts and local governments are an added bonus.
Teachers’ jobs could be saved and school programs spared.
Teachers’ retirement benefits aren’t the problem. Teachers contribute more of their salaries and collect less in benefits than other public employees. Prison guards, for example, retire seven years earlier than teachers with benefits that are 77 percent higher.
If you think the pension crisis is someone else’s problem, think again:
• San Francisco city retirees received a cost-of-living increase this year while 400
teachers received layoff notices. The $170 million cost of the COLA would pay the
salaries of those teachers for the next five years.
• The University of California raised tuition again this year, and more tuition hikes are
proposed. But UC doesn’t propose major changes to its retirement plan, which pays 1,643 retirees between $100,000 and $270,000 in annual pensions, including 224 who
collect full-time paychecks on top of their pension checks. UC recently ended a 19-year
“holiday” when UC employees paid nothing toward their retirement benefits.
• The Los Angeles Unified School District, which has a graduation rate of 55 percent,
sent layoff notices to 7,000 teachers last month. More than 600 retired LAUSD
administrators collect annual pensions that exceed $100,000 — plus lifetime healthcare
benefits.
Pension reform doesn’t mean retirees must give their benefits back. Public employees won’t lose the benefits they’ve earned. But reform is urgently needed to reverse the trend that consumes bigger chunks of revenue every year. Reasonable benefits and larger contributions from public employees will give California and local governments added resources to pay down pension debt.
Fix Pensions First will inform parents, teachers and policymakers that there are alternatives to teacher layoffs and program cuts. An informed electorate will demand pension reform and insist that it be done right. A state constitutional amendment, aligning public retirement benefits with those offered by the federal government and California’s largest private employers, would solve both the state and local pension crises.
This Web site is a resource for taxpayers, public employees, elected officials, academics, business leaders, and others who believe higher taxes can be avoided if we Fix Pensions First.
We’ll keep you up to date on…
• The latest news about California’s pension crisis
• Private research, government reports and academic studies
• Court decision and legal opinions
• Proposals to fix public pension plans
• How you can help
