CORE Sweeps Chicago Teachers Pension Election

Quentin Washington

The Chicago Teachers Union candidates Quentin Washington and Vicki Kurzydlo won the election to serve three year terms as Teacher Trustees on the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.

Trustee Washington won the most votes with 3,108 (27%) and Kurzydlo won with 2,389 votes (21%).

Former CTPF Investment Chair Phil Weiss placed third with 2,142 votes (18%) and Erika Meza placed fourth with 2,127 votes (18%). CTPF Trustee Victor Ochoa placed last with 1,588 votes (13%).

The election results further stamped the power of the CTU to win elections and this one was an important one to win. There is growing concern about a two tiered pension system in which a majority of teachers earn a pension that is less than social security - the minimum wage of retirement.

CORE controls 11 of the 12 trustee positions on the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.

How did they win despite the heat they’re getting about a dwindling pension and the high fees paid out to money managers?

Vicki Kurzydlo

The CORE leadership set up a virtual House of Delegates meeting that was an election forum in which each candidate spoke and answered questions. The delegates then voted to endorse the two CORE candidates. They were then able to bombard members with emails to vote for the two endorsed CORE candidates as well as send out a mailer to all the members.

In other words - money and muscle work together to produce election results.

But the heat is on for Chicago Teacher Trustees overseeing a $12 billion Pension Fund that is only 47 percent funded.

Tom Butterfield, a teacher at Peterson Elementary School who writes often on financial matters, asked why the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund is paying 71 money managers $44 million in fees.

“How do we justify this strategy & do we have a system to evaluate if these fees are necessary?”

Teachers in surrounding states have been asking the same questions about their public pension funds. The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS) elected a majority of reform trustees after the state eliminated the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and the Minnesota teachers hired forensic audit expert Ted Siedle to uncover massive fraud after they were whacked with a Tier Two system.

Chicago has been very protective of its money managers, and during board meetings the Trustees ask questions focused on their diversity rather than the fees they charge.

But as the pension debt grows and the pension payouts for retired members dwindle, trustees will have to justify what exactly the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund is doing to stay in business.