Whereas, the CFT believes that all of our members have the right to a defined benefit pension to provide them with a stable and secure income in retirement; and

Whereas, all public full-time educators are automatically enrolled in the CalSTRS Defined Benefit (DB) pension system; and

Whereas, all part-time faculty have the option of joining the CalSTRS Defined Benefit pension plan, but some would not be able to accrue the five full years of service credit needed to become vested; and

Whereas, some districts offer Social Security to part-time faculty as an alternative defined benefit option to CalSTRS Defined Benefit, CalSTRS Cash Balance, APPLE, PARS, and other cash balance programs; and

Whereas, all public California community college districts are required by statute to offer their part-time faculty an alternative retirement option, and as their default, some districts offer Defined Contribution savings plans, such as APPLE, PARS or CalSTRS Cash Balance in place of CalSTRS Defined Benefit or Social Security; and

Whereas, for many, these defined contribution savings plans provide a less stable and significantly reduced level of income in retirement; and

Whereas, Districts are inherently incentivized to not offer part-time faculty Social Security because Districts pay significantly lower contribution rates to these savings plans than Social Security or CalSTRS DB plans; and

Whereas, many part-time faculty often have other forms of employment where Social Security is their primary source of supplemental retirement income; and

Whereas, allowing part-time faculty to enroll in Social Security may allow them to earn the necessary 40 credits in order to qualify, and also increase the amount of their Social Security benefit in retirement; and

Whereas, many districts encourage newly-hired part-time educators to enroll in the defined contribution plans, often without explaining the financial ramifications of their retirement options; and

Whereas, many CFT members have had their retirement income reduced, often by hundreds of thousands of dollars, because they were not informed by their employer of the differences between a pension, Social Security, or the least expensive defined contribution saving plan; and

Whereas, while requiring Social Security as an option for part-time faculty could be negotiated at the district level, many attempts to do this have failed; and

Therefore, be it resolved, that CFT will sponsor legislation requiring Social Security as a required option for all part-time community college faculty, in addition to CalSTRS Defined Benefit; and

Be it finally resolved, that CFT work with locals to urge districts to provide a clear, detailed, and accurate presentation of their retirement system options, as well as the opportunity to meet with their union representatives before selecting a retirement plan as part of the onboarding process for newly-hired part-time faculty employees in the California Community College system,

Submitted by the Retirement Policy Committee