The article says, “since 2014 California has required increasing pension payments from employers and employees in the systems, with the contributions doubling over seven years. The budget report says the amount of the district's budget going toward benefits -- including pension costs, health and welfare, and retiree benefits -- has increased by 8 percent, or $3.2 million, since 2013-14.”

These pension costs will continue to increase dramatically, crowding out other spending and encouraging school boards to.keep coming back to the community for more money. School board members say they can do nothing about this. But this thinking is wrong. They can and need to pressure legislators to address the issue in a meaningful way.

Lifetime pensions with full health benefits just aren’t realistic anymore. We need to cut fixed benefit pensions, pay teachers more, and let them invest in savings plans like 401k’s like private sector people do.

I agree with Davis. Teachers complain about salary, but school districts can't pay much more salary because pensions costs are rising so fast. Schools are actually providing high compensation increases. It's just going to pensions, but that seems less of a need for teachers struggling to live in this area.

The state should give teachers the choice. Let them choose higher salary now or higher pension later. It would be cash neutral to the school district, but give the teacher flexibility. It's a bit like how private employees can choose to contribute a high percentage or low percentage of salary to a 401K.