Rob Bonta / commentary
Feb 14, 2014

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Assemblyman Rob Bonta

The California Teachers Retirement System, or CalSTRS, is facing a significant unfunded liability with respect to its Defined Benefit Program. CalSTRS has a shortfall in funding of approximately $71 billion and will run out of funding for the program by 2046 if no changes occur. If this happens, it hurts hard-working teachers in our country too as taxpayers and our education system.

The best solution to prepare the shortfall is ane that is fair to all stakeholders involved: schoolhouse districts, the state and teachers. I committed along with the Speaker of the Associates and the Assembly Autonomous Caucus to push to implement a permanent, ongoing solution to the funding shortfall in CalSTRS this year.

As chair of the Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security, I will begin this process next calendar week by having the offset of a series of hearings on Wednesday, Feb. xix.

This first hearing – "Addressing the California State Teachers' Retirement Organisation'due south Long-Term funding Needs" – volition build upon a articulation hearing my committee held concluding yr with the Senate by updating and reevaluating the data nosotros received and getting current perspectives on the effect from the diverse stakeholder groups, including representatives from CalSTRS, the California Teachers Clan and the Association of California Schoolhouse Administrators.

Hereafter hearings will focus on the meaning issues that must be resolved before a solution tin can be reached, such as the impact employer increases volition have on Proposition 98 funding and how the vested rights of members affect the ability to increase current member contributions.

Information technology is important to keep in mind equally we motility frontward in this give-and-take that the CalSTRS retirement benefit is the primary, and often the only, source of ongoing guaranteed retirement income paid to a teacher in California because California's public educators practise not earn Social Security benefits for their public education service. This fact alone makes it all the more of import for usa to ensure the long-term stability of CalSTRS.

The goal of this process is to enact a funding plan that achieves full funding over the adjacent several decades – thus enabling CalSTRS to pay the benefits owed to members while taking into consideration the bear on college contributions will have on country, schoolhouse and teachers' budgets.

I am eager to brainstorm this process and confident that an equitable and permanent solution tin and will be found to the CalSTRS funding problem through these hearings and my introduction of AB 611, which I hope volition eventually be the vehicle for a permanent, ongoing funding solution.

My finish goal and the finish goal of our state is to guarantee that CalSTRS is 100 percent funded. Ensuring the long-term financial security of California'due south difficult-working and dedicated teachers is a goal I am hopeful we can accomplish this yr.

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Assemblyman Rob Bonta represents the 18th Assembly Commune, which includes Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro, and is chair of the Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security.

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