by Andrew Walzer, Los Angeles City College

At the request of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, CalSTRS has agreed to host a Sustainability Forum on California Teacher Pensions. It will take place next week, on Wednesday, February 9, from 4:00-6:30 p.m, and it will be facilitated by an independent professional moderator to ensure that a full range of perspectives will be presented. You can register for the symposium here. Please do so!

A group of union activists from various chapters of CFT have formed a coalition to fight for divestment of CalSTRS from fossil fuels. Their website is cftdivest.org, and it includes a petition calling for CalSTRS to divest, as well as a resolution that local chapters of CFT can pass supporting divestment. The statewide CFT passed such a resolution over five years ago.

Two members of the CalSTRS board have publicly come out in favor of divestment: Superintendent Thurmond and State Treasurer Fiona Ma. We are still waiting for our union representative on the CalSTRS board, Sharon Hendricks, to take the same step. It’s long past due.

(Editor’s note: As stated in earlier newsletters, we very much welcome opinions in defense of continued fossil fuel investment.)

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