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.
more:
Take the contract. The district offered ๐ด๐ฌ% ๐ณ๐ฎ๐บ๐ถ๐น๐ ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ coverage Tuesday. The union rejected it and demanded 100%. Many SFUSD teachers already earn six-figures in total compensation. The district is insolvent. And every politician in the city showed up to chant instead of telling anyone the math doesn’t work.
Meanwhile, 50,000 kids missed school for a second straight day. Parents scrambled for childcare. The union’s own negotiator called Monday night’s session “finally productive.” Then they rejected Tuesday’s offer anyway.
Which SF politician has asked why families keep leaving or why half the kids can’t read? Name one.
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.
The SF teachers union bullied the lowest-paid workers in the district for having the nerve to show up to work Monday. A strike captain stationed herself at the O’Connell High gate to stop paraeducators and noon monitors from entering. When a group of women walked through anyway, the picket line booed them.
โโ-
Union members wondering on Reddit why parents donโt seem very supportive of the strike
โโ-
Annual costs unknown
The potential cost of all three propositions varies because of the unknown number of employees that would participate in the new pension plans. But if all three passed, it could cost the city between $7.2 million and $13.4 million annually, according to the analysis by City Controller Greg Wagner.
โโ-
Related:
โAn emphasis on adult employmentโ
In Wisconsin, we took power out of the hands of the big government special interests and returned it to the hard-working taxpayers and the people they elect to run their schools and local governments. Today, schools in my state can staff based on merit and pay based on performance. That means that they can put the best and the brightest in the classroom and keep them there too.
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Moody’s sees Illinois slipping: Fewer jobs, fewer people