As your pension representative, Jay Rehak pledges to keep in constant communication with the membership when it comes to our future financial health.
Jay’s Top Five Points Regarding the Pension Fund:
1) From 1995-2005, the Board of Education received 1.4 Billion Dollars from the State of Illinois that was supposed to be placed into our Pension Fund. CPS placed zero of those dollars into the fund. (They took that earmarked money and used it for their own purposes, including hundreds of millions of dollars for charter schools.)
2) In 2006, our Pension Fund had over 12 billion dollars. Today, our Fund has a little more than 8 Billion dollars.
3) The Board of Education is looking for legislative relief from its obligation to our pension fund, including a limit on their annual contribution to our fund. This would lower the pensions of all future retirees.
4) State Law requires the Board of Education to Fund our Pension at 90%; the most current estimate is that we are at 79%
5) Charter school teachers pay into the Teachers Pension Fund; charter schools currently make up 14% of all Chicago Public Schools. As that percentage increases, charter schools will have a greater input into decisions regarding our pension fund*.
*NOTE: Charter School Members vote in the Teacher Pension Fund Elections
Jay Rehak and Lois Ashford are your CORE-endorsed candidates for Pension Trustees. They will both keep future retirees in the loop regarding our pensions.
Howard Heath is CORE’s endorsed retiree Trustee. He will keep an eye on Springfield, the Board, and the Mayor. He will advocate for a fully-funded pension.
