Six-figure pensions soar for California school administrators
Thousands of newly retired school administrators will earn more during retirement than most Californians will make during their working careers.
The number of educators receiving $100,000-plus annual pensions jumped 650 percent from 2005 to 2011, going from 700 to 5,400, according to a Bee review of data from the California State Teachers' Retirement System.
Though they make up just 2 percent of CalSTRS pensions, six-figure payouts are a focus of pension reform discussions under way at the Capitol. Six-figure retirees eat 7 percent of CalSTRS benefits and can ultimately get millions more than they put into the system.
Booming administrator salaries are largely behind the trend. Public school superintendents, on average, earned $168,000 in base pay last year, roughly 56 percent more than they did 10 years ago, according to data from the California Department of Education.
"Top-level management … start their careers at a higher wage level, see larger percentage increases than their classroom colleagues, and they still manage to work long careers," said CalSTRS spokesman Ricardo Duran.
A series of benefit enhancements a decade ago also explain the rise. Experienced teachers and administrators can now make a pension equal to 2.4 percent of their highest pay for each year of service, up from a flat 2 percent. Largely as a result, more than a third of the state's six-figure pensioners earn more each year in retirement than they ever did on the job.
The number of six-figure pensions will likely continue to rise as more highly paid baby boomers reach the end of their careers.
CalSTRS is the nation's second-largest public pension system, trailing only its cousin, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which, as reported by The Bee earlier this month, also has seen a surge in $100,000 pensions. CalSTRS serves teachers and administrators in the state's community colleges and school districts.
Like other public pension systems, CalSTRS has financial problems. The value of its assets isn't enough to cover what it has promised in benefits. System officials estimate CalSTRS will be unable to fund benefits in about 30 years unless the Legislature implements higher contribution rates for school districts, employees or the state.
Investment losses, broad pay raises and benefit boosts, not six-figure pensions, are the primary cause of CalSTRS' troubles. Most CalSTRS retirees are teachers, and the average annual benefit for those who retired last year is $49,000.
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Meaney retired in 2004 with 42 years of service, including two years he received free as a retirement incentive. His annual salary increased about 90 percent to $188302 during his last 10 years on the job, CalSTRS records show. Asked about his pension,
The Legislature is not bound by the California Public Records Act, which applies to all other state agencies. Instead, lawmakers wrote their own such law, the Legislative Open Records Act, which gives them far greater leeway to withhold information.
Those perks are detailed in copies of his expense reports and other documents obtained under the California Public Records Act. An attorney for DeStefano, James Blatt, said his client has done nothing wrong.
But when Doug Sterner, of Alexandria, Va., a decorated Vietnam War veteran and war-hero boast-buster, began digging around in March and obtained the man's service records, he found a note from 1945 inserted by an officer that said the man's medal
Proceed from the start with the understanding that all videos are a matter of public interest and a public record. Vermont courts have ruled, in general, that police videos are public records. If police are acting properly, they have nothing to hide.
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