COVID-19 is driving many California teachers to early retirement, CalSTRS says
More California teachers are retiring than at any point since the Great Recession, with many of those decisions motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 3,200 teachers retired in the second half of 2020, a 26% increase over that same period in 2019, according to a blog post by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, also known as CalSTRS.
CalSTRS received more than 500 survey responses, which found that more than half (62%) of those who retired did so earlier than they had planned.
Of those, 56% said that they did so because of the challenges of teaching during a pandemic, and more than a third (35%) said that they did not want to continue working remotely or did not want to risk exposure to COVID-19.
CalSTRS said that if current trends continue, the 2020-21 fiscal year will see just shy of 16,000 retirements. The largest ever number of service retirements was in fiscal year 2009-10, when more than 16,000 teachers retired following the global financial crisis of 2008.
Despite the rush of retirements, CalSTRS does not anticipate that its funding model will be impacted.
“CalSTRS funding plan is still on track and retirement benefits are being paid on time and in full,” a CalSTRS spokesperson said in a statement.
CalSTRS, which provides pension plans to about 950,000 current and retired teachers and has a portfolio worth some $283 billion, noted that retirements vary from year to year.
Here are the retirement numbers for the past five fiscal years:
- 2019-20: 12,496
- 2018-19: 13,133
- 2017-18: 13,072
- 2016-17: 12,868
- 2015-16: 12,054
Those numbers include both teachers who were actively working as well as those who left the profession in the past but waited until being eligible to retire.
CalSTRS sees between 1,000 and 2,000 inactive teacher retirements every year.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.