Table was set 20 years ago.
LA is bracing for a strike that would close schools for more than 500,000 kids and their families. If it happens, it would be the third strike in seven years.
Don’t blame employees, LAUSD’s administration, or the school board, all of whom are caught in a web not of their making. Blame the actions of 16 people 20 years ago that created that web.
11 were members of the board of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), including the State Treasurer, State Controller and State Superintendent of Public Instruction who, in 2006, knuckled under to pressure from the California Teachers’ Association, California School Employees Association and California School Boards Association to block a reform of the funding of pension promises. Five were members of the California State Senate Rules Committee who removed the one CalSTRS board member (me) who pressed for that reform. Had that reform been adopted, LAUSD today would have more than enough money to give each employee a substantial raise. Instead, LAUSD’s pension spending since 2014 has grown six times faster than its revenues, leaving too little with which to compensate current employees. The same reason caused San Francisco’s school strike earlier this year, and the same reason underlies all the threatened strikes around the state that CTA is orchestrating in order to boost the chances for a tax increase on the November ballot.
Rumor has it that a tentative agreement to avoid the strike may have been reached. If so, that would be good news for students and their families, but employees should be wary. San Francisco’s settlement of its strike was followed in short order by layoffs. There is no getting around the math that pension costs will continue rising faster than revenues.
