What Is The California State Teachers Retirement System

SRVEA President Ann Katzburg attended lobby day in Sacramento where the topic was the state budget. Ms. Katzburg stated their emphasis is to keep the money in Prop 98, which is not adequately funded, and to spend the general fund on other things. They spoke with legislators about the fact that professionals are not going into education. There is a proposal for a blended program which will encourage CSU’s to allow prospective teachers to include a teaching program during the bachelors program, with completion in 4 years.

The new changes No Child Left Behind laws were passed earlier in 2010 stresses the importance of education has to be our main concern to ensure that our children are getting quality education. The legislation is called “Performance Counts,” It reevaluates tenure laws and evaluation. This means that teachers are evaluated and being laid off because of their performance in the classrooms. No matter how long the teacher has been in his/her position that still wouldn’t keep them in their position because of their low performance. Over the next 10 years the focus will be to prepare hundreds of new teachers in STEM science, technology, engineering, and math (Mclatchy, 2010). The program is to encourage students in the STEM field or alternative teacher certification programs to switch their careers if they choose to. For

Due to financial issues, any districts hardest hit had no choice but to move around resources to make up the difference in their actual spending and funds provided by the state due to the Class Size Reduction (CSRe) experiment in California. While accountability was not intended to so strongly influence what

courses, summer school, advanced placement, special education, and other programs will be eliminated (Martinez, 2009). Not only do these cuts have an effect on K-12, they also encumber community colleges, state universities, and state colleges. At the college level tuition prices continue to climb, class availability declines, limits on new enrollments, and cutting educators. In January of 2011, Governor Jerry Brown of California proposed his budget cuts and state universities would be taking another cut of $1 billion, leaving alone elementary and secondary schools (Christie, 2011). While politicians stress education is important to improve the quality of one’s life, they also illustrate it is expendable.

The Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan (OTPP) is a defined contribution plan that was created in 1917 to provide and administer a pension plan for Ontario school teachers.  Sponsored by the Ontario Government and the Ontario Teacher’s Federation, the plan currently supports 343,000 teachers, former teachers and pensioners. The recent government decision to eliminate the 30% constraint on foreign investments and the increased volatility in the currency market has prompted the OTPP Investment Committee to address the following:

Too much astonishment the 2005 Supreme Court ruling did not say that Californian system was not enforceable. They said that California's policy system has to be proven feasible under strict scrutiny standard. Therefore, it was possible that the trial court could find ways to pass the segregation policy under the strict scrutiny analysis and continue their practice. In fact, California's state penitentiaries did find a way and in 2008, a number of prisons in California implemented the Integrated Housing Program (IHP). This program was not about desegregating prisons but about ensuring that inmates housing assignments in cells and dorms were made using rational objective criteria rather than race-based criteria. The CDC’s countlessly ensured

By 1958, the California Legislature proposed a joint committee-legislative and citizen- commission on education “instructed to analyze all facets of education-finances, goals, curricula, the teacher problem, equipment, etc.—and to conduct public hearings on education in various geographical areas.” (Sacramento Bee, March 24, 1958). The Citizens Commission was charged by the Legislature to collect public opinion, report the summary of findings, and make recommendations. Among the five recommendations, four credentials were to be established: the Standard

California has 62 state and locally managed public retirement pension arrangements. According to Nava and Christensen (2015), the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act that was implemented into law on January 1, 2013, covers the state’s two largest pension systems. They include the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS). It also covers the 20 county systems that are under the 1937 Act County Employees Retirement Law (CERL). The Act changes the manner in which CalPERS, CalSTRS, and CERL retirement and health benefits are applied, and places compensation restrictions on members (Nava & Christensen, 2015). PEPRA’s purpose was to establish a cap on the amount of compensation that can be used to determine a retirement benefit for all new members of a public retirement system. The cap should be equal to the Social Security wage index limit, that is, $110,100 for workers involved in Social Security, or 120% of that limit, which is $132,120 if the employees do not participate in social security (Nava & Christensen, 2015). PEPRA’s provisions apply to new staff and new members of CalPERS, CalSTRS, and the 20 CERL plans. According to the Act, a new employee is a worker of a public business who was not employed by any other public employer before

The state of Arizona is facing a serious education crisis in the retention of qualified teachers. Personally, my school in Yuma, Arizona encountered an average of seven new teachers every year. Yuma High School District allowed for a teacher to teach chemistry when his/her Bachelor’s degree was in mathematics. According to the ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ enacted in 2001, schools are required to provide “highly qualified” teachers to teach at all times (Educator Excellence). Having quality, long-term teachers is imperative to develop students in becoming productive members of society. Unfortunately due to federal budget cuts directly affecting education, Timothy L. Ogle, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association, says, “Arizona has faced the most dramatic cuts to K-12 education spending of any state in the nation” (Lopez). As a result, administration is forced to have teachers make up for the lack of a certain subject by teaching it without qualifications. Due to this, out-of-state teachers leave within the first 5 years, and 25% all leave within the first year. Some reasons for this include a

As you may know there are two types of pension plans that are most commonly used: a defined contribution plan and a defined benefit plan. “A defined contribution plan sets forth a certain amount that the employer is to contribute to the plan each period (Schroeder, Clark, & Cathey, "Pensions and Other Postretirement Benefits," 2011). “A defined benefit plan specifies the amount of pension benefits to be paid out to plan recipients in the future. Companies that use this plan must make sufficient contributions to the funding agency in order to meet benefit requirements

California is facing not only teacher shortage but teachers that are diverse. While the Hispanic and Asian population are increasing, there are hardly any teachers that are diverse. According to American Association of College for Teacher Education “that students of color made up more than 45% of the PK–12 population, whereas teachers of color made up only 17.5% of the educator workforce." (Deruy). While many may argue that the lack of diversity is happening because majority of the diverse population is going towards jobs that pay more such into technology and other occupations, one has to look also on how schools are encouraging those students into the teaching profession. Old schools like Mesa Verde High School that have been providing

It has been said many times that children are our future. That is a scary thought considering our lack of investment as a people in that future, for without a solid base of education now the bright future we hope for may never come to fruition. This Paper will look at the current state of the Public Education System of the Sate of California. It will focus on the breakdown of the current system looking specifically at the following issues: Lack of Funding for the System, Lack of Qualified Teaching Personnel,

There is a consensus among the concerned stakeholders that the quality of teachers is the leading factor in determination of student performance. In the case of United States, the student performance can only be given an impetus by the efforts which the state can make, under all costs, to develop and retain high quality teachers. The measures undertaken determine the level of turnover of the school teachers. Lazear (2009) similarly argues the length of employment is a critical factor in averse risks of employment a trend contrary to teachers treatment. The turnover of public school teachers will refer to the rate at which the state, which is the teacher’s

Employers assume responsibility for providing retirement funds in a defined benefits plan. In the plan, a specified amount is set aside for future payments to employees, for life, during retirement. The amount is determine in advance is based on factors such as age, salary, and length of employment. In 2009, the maximum amount to be allotted under the plan was $195,000.

California's educational system has been hit with a massive budget crisis. This set back has led to