PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS' SELF-INFLICTED ABUSE OF MEMBERS' RETIREMENT FUNDS

Good morning!

We hope you’ll take some time away from your last-minute Christmas shopping to catch up on the latest Golden State news. 

Last week. Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, and the Los Angeles Unified School District announced a partnership to improve “health services” at state high schools. The plan creates “safe spaces” on 50 high school campuses to provide students with “social, emotional, and sexual health” services, along with “pregnancy options counseling.” The Los Angeles Times adds that “the centers include reproductive health clinics where students can get birth control pills and condoms” and will cost $12 million during their first year. 

This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the National Education Association (NEA) has been recommending retirement products for its members that include high fees and kickbacks to the union. “Teacher David Hamblen said a recommendation by the National Education Association was a key reason he put 403(b) savings in an annuity before his 2010 retirement from the El Dorado Union High School District in Placerville, Calif,” reports The Journal. However, his fees reached 2.99 percent per year, far higher than competing products. Turns out: “NEA-affiliated state unions that referred members to Security Benefit [Corp.] products received $129,263 for the year, according to an SEC filing.” So the union was exploiting its members to benefit its own bottom line. Sound familiar? The kicker: “For its own employees, the NEA hired low-cost Vanguard to oversee a 401(k), resulting in investment fees a fraction of what many NEA union members pay.”

With stagnant and declining educational outcomes statewide, California parents are losing confidence that things will get better. However, there is some hope for the future. Next month the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which could make it easier for parents to send their children to a private, religiously affiliated school. CPC contributor Larry Sand discusses the case here.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear City of Boise v. Martin. In 2018, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city of Boise could not stop people from sleeping on public property if no other shelter was made available to them. One of the unintended consequences of this decision is that local elected officials now are powerless to stop the expansion of homeless encampments. Stephen Eide, a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute, notes that “any city that wants to prohibit encampments must first ask the courts not only to verify that it has enough shelter capacity for the homeless but also to assess whether local shelter programs are appropriate to the needs and desires of the local homeless population.”

Speaking of homelessness, CPC Fellow Edward Ring explains how California’s housing policies favor “overbuilt monstrosities, with the biggest losers the homeless. The average cost for ‘permanent supportive housing in California is now easily in excess of a half-million per unit…an astonishing, criminal waste of public money.” You can read his article here. 

Finally, the California state government is refusing to comply with its own open record laws. The state controller’s office has repeatedly denied public records requests from OpenTheBooks.com, a nonprofit focused on increasing government transparency. Its founder Adam Andrzejewski told the Washington Free Beacon, “Their excuse is that they can't locate the records—that their system doesn't allow the controller after she makes the payment to track the payment.” Andrzejewski says his organization will likely pursue legal action.

Upcoming Events:

New Year’s Eve at the Reagan Library 
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library hosts a New Year’s Eve celebration to ring in 2020. Enjoy an elaborate night of celebration, extensive hors d’oeuvres, dinner stations, gourmet desserts, and a champagne toast at midnight with all of the party essentials-hats, horns, streamers, and more! General admission tickets are $155. To reserve your spot, click here.

The Role of Religion in Politics and the Role of Politics in Religion
The Pepperdine School of Public Policy hosts Rabbi Stu Halpern on Thursday, February 6 to discuss his new book, Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States. He will be joined by Pepperdine’s Wilfred McClay and Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik for a dynamic conversation on the role the Bible has, can and should play in the American public conversation. To register for this exciting event, click here.

Franklin and Washington: The Founding Partnership
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward Larson will speak at the Commonwealth Club on Monday, February 10 and discuss his joint biography of our two most influential Founding Fathers. Tickets are $20 for non-members and will include a book-signing as well. For more information, and to register, click here.

If you have items for events anywhere in the state, please send them to me!

As always, if you’d like to join our movement to save California, we invite you to support us. Click here to donate to CPC.