Love:
๐๐ผ๐น๐น๐ผ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐
The district spends $๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐บ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ on pensions and retiree health benefits. Every dollar goes to retired employees. Zero reaches a working teacher or a classroom. This spending spiral stems from a miscalculation the state was warned about two decades ago.
๐ฆ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ง๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐ฆ๐๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ง๐ต๐ถ๐
Stanford lecturer David Crane sat on the State Teachers Retirement System board in 2006. He warned them their assumed 8% investment return was fantasy and said 6.2% was realistic. The state Senate kicked him off the board.
Why? Lower return assumptions mean higher pension contributions. Higher contributions mean less money for salary negotiations today. The teachers union had every incentive to keep the fantasy alive, and unions own the California legislature.
He was right. STRS and CalPERS have earned 6.45% and 7.2% since 1999. The gap between promised and actual returns forced taxpayers to cover $๐ฑ๐ต๐ฏ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป in shortfalls. Half a trillion dollars that could have funded salaries and classrooms instead went to covering a bet the pension board was warned it would lose.
โโ
No one mentioned the real reason SFUSD doesnโt pay its teachers more. District spending on pensions and other retirement costs has grown at nearly five times the rate of school revenues, squeezing out funds needed for teachersโ salaries.
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