The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is a concept advocated by conservative and free market libertarian groups, primarily in the United States, as a way of limiting the growth of government. It is not a charter of rights but a provision requiring that increases in overall tax revenue be tied to inflation and population increases unless larger increases are approved by referendum.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is an agency in the California executive branch that "manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.5 million California public employees, retirees, and their families". In fiscal year 2020–21, CalPERS paid over $27.4 billion in retirement benefits, and over $9.74 billion in health benefits.
The School District No. 1 in the City and County of Denver and State of Colorado, more commonly known as Denver Public Schools (DPS), is the public school system in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States.
The pensions crisis or pensions timebomb is the predicted difficulty in paying for corporate or government employment retirement pensions in various countries, due to a difference between pension obligations and the resources set aside to fund them. The basic difficulty of the pension problem is that institutions must be sustained over far longer than the political planning horizon. Shifting demographics are causing a lower ratio of workers per retiree; contributing factors include retirees living longer, and lower birth rates. An international comparison of pension institution by countries is important to solve the pension crisis problem. There is significant debate regarding the magnitude and importance of the problem, as well as the solutions. One aspect and challenge of the "Pension timebomb" is that several countries' governments have a constitutional obligation to provide public services to its citizens, but the funding of these programs, such as healthcare are at a lack of funding, especially after the 2008 recession and the strain caused on the dependency ratio by an ageing population and a shrinking workforce, which increases costs of elderly care.
The 2005 New York City transit strike, held from December 20 through 22, 2005, was the third strike ever by the Transport Workers Union Local 100 against New York City's Transit Authority and involved between 32,000 and 34,000 strikers.
The California School Employees Association (CSEA) is the largest classified school employees labor union in the United States. CSEA represents a quarter million classified public school employees in California.
Robert S. Gardner is a legislator in the U.S. state of Colorado. A United States Air Force veteran and attorney, Gardner was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives as a Republican in 2006. From 2006 to 2012, he represented House District 21, which encompasses western El Paso County and northeastern Fremont County.
Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) is a public pension plan of the State of Texas. Established in 1937, TRS provides retirement and related benefits for those employed by the public schools, colleges, and universities supported by the State of Texas and manages a $180 billion trust fund established to finance member benefits. More than 1.6 million public education and higher education employees and retirees participate in the system. TRS is the largest public retirement system in Texas in both membership and assets and the sixth largest public pension fund in America. The agency is headquartered at 1000 Red River Street in the capital city of Austin.
Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is a state-level department tasked in Arizona with oversight of public education from kindergarten to secondary school. The ADE is run by an elected Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Defined benefit (DB) pension plan is a type of pension plan in which an employer/sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump-sum, or combination thereof on retirement that depends on an employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns. Traditionally, many governmental and public entities, as well as a large number of corporations, provide defined benefit plans, sometimes as a means of compensating workers in lieu of increased pay.
Michael Christopher Johnston is an American educator and politician serving as the 46th and current mayor of Denver, Colorado. A member of the Democratic Party, he won the 2023 Denver mayoral election, defeating Kelly Brough in the June 6 runoff election.
Cory Scott Gardner is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Colorado from 2015 to 2021. A Republican, he was the U.S. representative for Colorado's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2015 and a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011.
2011 Wisconsin Act 10, also known as the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill or the Wisconsin Budget Adjustment Act, is a controversial law enacted by the 100th Wisconsin Legislature which significantly limited the rights and compensation of state and local government employees in Wisconsin. It was the signature act of Republican governor Scott Walker, who described it as a tool needed to address a projected $3.6 billion budget deficit. The introduction of this bill provoked immediate outrage from labor unions and their allies, and resulted in months of mass protests at the Wisconsin State Capitol. Democratic members of the Wisconsin Senate then fled the state to deny a quorum for the bill, remaining in Illinois for three weeks. Republicans in the legislature eventually stripped out budgetary items to circumvent budget-related quorum rules and passed the legislation on March 9, 2011. The law was signed by governor Walker on the morning of March 11 and was followed by a ceremonial signing later that day.
Oklahoma Teacher's Retirement System (OTRS) is the pension program for public education employees in the State of Oklahoma. As of June 30, 2014, the program had nearly 168,000 members. Public education teachers and administrators are required to be OTRS members; support staff can join voluntarily. State law established OTRS in 1943 to manage retirement funds and provide financial security for public education employees. Its first checks to retirees were sent out in 1947. It is administered by a staff and 14-member board of trustees. Its current executive director is Tom Spencer, who started in that position on November 1, 2014.
The 2018 Oklahoma teachers' walkout began on April 2, 2018, with teachers across the state walking out to protest low pay, overcrowded classrooms, and tax cuts that resulted in lower state-wide education spending. It was the first such action in Oklahoma since 1990. The OEA declared an end to the walkout on April 12 after an agreement to increase salaries and state funding for education was reached. The call to end the walkout faced some objection from teachers and parents who did not believe that enough concessions were made by lawmakers.
The 2018 Arizona teachers' strike was held from April 26–May 3, 2018, by 20,000 teachers to protest low pay and cuts to school funding. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey had approved a proposal giving a 20 percent raise to teachers by 2020, with a 9 percent raise in 2019; teachers rejected this proposal as it did not provide increased funding for schools themselves or raises for support staff. It coincided with a similar strike in neighboring Colorado.
The 2018–2019 education workers' strikes in the United States began on February 22, 2018, after local activists compelled the West Virginia state leadership of the West Virginia branches of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association into holding a strike vote. The strike—which ended when teachers returned to their classrooms on March 7—inspired similar, statewide strikes in Oklahoma and Arizona. It also inspired smaller-scale protests by school staff in Kentucky, North Carolina, Colorado, and led to a school bus driver strike in Georgia. Additionally, around this time, adjunct professors at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia protested over pay.
The 2018 North Carolina teachers' rally was a rally and protest on May 16, 2018, with teachers in North Carolina walking out in protest of deflating wages and decreased employee benefits.
The Illinois pension crisis refers to the rising gap between the pension benefits owed to eligible state employees and the amount of funding set aside by the state to make these future pension payments. As of 2020, the size of Illinois' pension obligation is $237B, but the state's pension funds have only $96B available for payouts to retirees.
From 1968 to 2012 at least 839 teacher strikes have occurred in the US. 740 of these have been in Pennsylvania. Teacher strikes and walkouts have since increased in popularity outside of Pennsylvania due to the Red for Ed movement in 2018-19.
