Pay Raises? Probably Not.

California teachers will probably be waiting awhile for pay raises.  With education taking up about half the state budget, and with the state shuttering so many of its businesses and thus losing out on tax revenue, money's just not going to be there to fund education like normal.  And more and more of the money teachers and districts do get is going to CalSTRS, the State Teachers Retirement System:

This is the second consecutive year that CalSTRS missed its target, although last year’s performance — a 6.8% return — just barely fell short of the fund’s goal. Officials at the time cited market volatility as the driving force.

CalSTRS is the nation’s largest teacher pension fund, valued at $246.0 billion. It’s about 64% funded, meaning that the state has 64% of the money it needs to fulfill all current and future obligations.

CalSTRS since 2014 has been asking teachers and schools to pay more toward retirement plans in an effort to bring the system to full funding.

Teacher contribution rates have grown from 8.15% in 2014 — about the same rate as in 1972 — to just over 10% last year. In 2013, school districts paid 8.25% of salaries toward teachers’ pensions. Payments were scheduled to increase to around 19% in the upcoming year.

As the coronavirus outbreak introduced new costs and uncertainty about the future of education funding, five superintendents of major school districts in April asked the state to freeze their contributions at 2019 levels. CalSTRS said at the time that delayed contributions could threaten efforts to improve the system’s financial health.

All those anti-capitalist teachers out there should probably reflect on the fact that their retirement pay relies on the stock market.  After all, where do they think that $246 billion is invested?