Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! We have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. You need to know this news in the fight for a secure retirement.
NPPC News
In the age of misinformation and disinformation, it can be hard to determine what’s fact or fiction. This is particularly true regarding public pensions and how they are funded. In our latest blog, The Financial Health of Public Pensions: Facts vs. Fiction, we separate the real from the fake news about pension fiscal health.
Anchorage staffing shortages force the city to drop hundreds of criminal cases.
Alaskan communities have long suffered the ill effects of public staffing shortages. The state has seen police station closures, limited sanitation work, lengthy SNAP benefit delays, school closures, unplowed roads, and numerous other glaring gaps in public services. Now, as the general election nears, the populous city of Anchorage is facing a new crisis: the ongoing shortage of state prosecutors has forced the city to drop hundreds of criminal cases to reduce its hefty backlog, meaning hundreds of people who committed misdemeanors–including domestic violence, DUI, and child abuse–will walk scot-free.
The list of criminal offenses dismissed since May 1 reads like a dismal rap sheet: 270 DUIs–including several involving children in the car–dismissed. Animal cruelty cases, dismissed. Two hundred fifty domestic violence charges dropped. Child abuse cases–including one in which a mother admitted to beating her 5-year-old–were dismissed. In all, 930 cases have been dropped in the last five months, while only three defendants have seen the inside of a court.
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said, “Right now, the prosecutors are frustrated, the police are frustrated. The public is frustrated. Victims are frustrated,” she said in an interview. “We see that. I see that, and this is something that we are working to fix.”
Alaska closed its pension system to new hires in 2005, and lawmakers overturned efforts to restore defined benefits last year.
Arizona fills teacher vacancies with “alternative methods”
Educator shortages in Arizona have led lawmakers to address the issue using unconventional means. The state is filling empty spots using what they call “alternative methods” and placing people who do not meet standard teacher requirements at the head of the class.
A survey by the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association (ASPAA) found that almost 75% of the 8,000 educator vacancies in the state either need to be filled or have been filled with unqualified candidates.
Patty Christie, director of recruitment and retention for Mesa Public Schools, says they are steering new teachers toward the Path 2 Teach program, which prepares future educators without a Bachelor’s degree in education for the classroom. “We do capture quite a few people that are suddenly realizing their excitement and passion for being a teacher and they’re able to go back and do it, certainly through our certification program, without any cost to them,” Christie said.
Fiscal responsibility evades Providence school district.
Officials in Rhode Island are exploring how to deal with a pattern of late payments from the Providence Public School District to the state pension fund. The school district, which has been struggling with city officials over cash flow issues for several years, now faces the possibility of losing state aid.
The problem stems from 2023 when Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island chief financial officer Stacey Whitton notified Providence district leaders about their repeated failure to make timely contributions. “Please advise when the wires will be received, otherwise your organizations will be placed on hold for state aid,” Whitton wrote in a Dec.14 email.
Rhode Island has a lengthy history of tardy pension system contributions, which ultimately led then-Governor Gina Raimondo to pass harmful pension reforms in 2011, a move that had devastating effects on public employee recruitment and retention in the Ocean state.
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