California Educator

JUNE/JULY 2012

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE Teachers' pensions NEA Foundation grants Meet your local negotiators ..................................................................................................34 .............................................................................................36 ......................................................................................37 Your retirement is worth saving! "Boots on the ground" at the Capitol to protect your pension IN THE FACE OF increasing attempts to roll back public employee pensions, CTA is working with other unions to persuade lawmakers to preserve retirement ben- efits. Through CTA-organized protests, press conferences, letters to the editor and opinion columns, your voice is being heard in the debate. Maggie Ellis chairs CTA's State Coun- cil Retirement Committee. We caught up with the Elk Grove Education Asso- ciation president at a California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) board meeting to get the latest on the governor's 12-point pension proposal. WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE GOVERNOR'S PENSION PROPOSAL? The Legislature's pension committee is putting their report together, and we anticipate hearing something anytime between now and early August. We've had boots on the ground in the Capitol, organizing retirement pension commit- tee lobby days. A lot of our members had face-to-face meetings with legisla- tors to explain how pension reform measures affect our CalSTRS members. We've talked about all the governor's pension points. The proposal: AMONG CTA'S CONCERNS about the governor's 12-point pension plan being considered are proposals to: Implement a "hybrid" plan that combines the current employer- sponsored defined-benefit pension with a risky 401(k)-style defined- contribution plan. Increase the retirement age of teachers and public employees from 60 to 67. Change the one-year final compensation to the highest average annual compensation over a three- year period. WHAT DO TEACHERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR RETIREMENT? Retirement is emotional because it's your security. It's the rest of your life. Teachers need to be educated about what a defined-benefit plan is. Hav- ing a secure defined-benefit (DB) plan allows us to have security in our retirement. Teachers need to know that Cal- worth investing in. It's worth keeping and worth expanding for all people. This is not an entitlement. It's an investment. Teachers need to know that we do have a funding problem, and that increased contributions are going to have to be addressed. What that looks like is part of the conversation we're having with the Legislature. THIS ISN'T THE MESSAGE THAT EDUCATORS ARE COMMONLY GETTING? No. We are hearing that this is the Titanic, it's already sinking and there's no way to save it. That's so far from the truth. I believe it's part of a politi- cal agenda or a financial agenda to get rid of defined-benefit systems and turn them into defined-contribution (DC) systems. The only people who benefit from a defined-contribution system are Wall Street and vendors who are selling 401(k)-style defined-contribution plans. STRS is a solid system and an integral part of California's economy, because we are investors in things that are not just local, but statewide and even worldwide. The CalSTRS is a system DOES IT SEEM LIKE TEACHERS HAVE A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF CALSTRS? Teachers tend to take care of themselves last. We take care of our students, we focus on the classroom, and only in the last few years of our career do we start 34 California Educator June/July 2012

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