Determinants of the generosity of pension plans for public school teachers, 1982–2006

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT L. CLARK ◽  
LEE A. CRAIG

AbstractAll states provide pension plans to their teachers and civil servants; however, these plans vary across the states. We present a history of the development of teacher retirement plans during the twentieth century, describe how teacher plans relate to retirement plans for other state employees, and assess the impact of teachers not being included in Social Security on the benefits they receive from their employer pension plan. Over the past 25 years, public school teacher retirement plans in the United States have increased in generosity as benefit formulas have been increased, salary averaging periods have been reduced, and the normal retirement age has been lowered. We employ data from retirement plans in the states to estimate the impact of social and economic factors on the replacement rates for teachers retiring with 30 years of service.

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48
Author(s):  
Nino Abashidze ◽  
Robert L. Clark ◽  
Robert G. Hammond ◽  
Beth M. Ritter ◽  
David Vanderweide

AbstractThis study examines the distribution options of 85 large public retirement plans covering general state employees, teachers, and local government employees. The interest rates used to price annuities vary considerably across the plans. As a result, retirees with the same monthly benefit if a single life benefit is chosen will have substantially different monthly benefits if they select a joint and survivor annuity. We examine the impact of variation in the pricing of annuity options using both cross-plan differences in interest rates and the change in the choice of annuity options in one plan after the price of options changes due to new assumed interest rates and mortality rates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-465
Author(s):  
Stanley N. Katz ◽  
Leah Reisman

AbstractThis article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement on the arts and cultural sector in the United States, placing the 2020 crises in the context of the United States’s historically decentralized approach to supporting the arts and culture. After providing an overview of the United States’s private, locally focused history of arts funding, we use this historical lens to analyze the combined effects of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement on a single metropolitan area – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We trace a timeline of key events in the national and local pandemic response and the reaction of the arts community to the Black Lives Matter movement, arguing that the nature of these intersecting responses, and their fallout for the arts and cultural sector, stem directly from weaknesses in the United States’s historical approach to administering the arts. We suggest that, in the context of widespread organizational vulnerability caused by the pandemic, the United States’s decentralized approach to funding culture also undermines cultural organizations’ abilities to respond to issues of public relevance and demonstrate their civic value, threatening these organizations’ legitimacy.


BMC Nutrition ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Milagro Escobar ◽  
Andrea DeCastro Mendez ◽  
Maria Romero Encinas ◽  
Sofia Villagomez ◽  
Janet M. Wojcicki

Abstract Background Food insecurity impacts nearly one-in-four Latinx households in the United States and has been exacerbated by the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We examined the impact of COVID-19 on household and child food security in three preexisting, longitudinal, Latinx urban cohorts in the San Francisco Bay Area (N = 375 households, 1875 individuals). Households were initially recruited during pregnancy and postpartum at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) and UCSF Benioff prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this COVID-19 sub-study, participants responded to a 15-min telephonic interview. Participants answered 18 questions from the US Food Security Food Module (US HFSSM) and questions on types of food consumption, housing and employment status, and history of COVID-19 infection as per community or hospital-based testing. Food security and insecurity levels were compared with prior year metrics. Results We found low levels of household food security in Latinx families (by cohort: 29.2%; 34.2%; 60.0%) and child food security (56.9%, 54.1%, 78.0%) with differences between cohorts explained by self-reported levels of education and employment status. Food security levels were much lower than those reported previously in two cohorts where data had been recorded from prior years. Reported history of COVID-19 infection in households was 4.8% (95% Confidence Interval (CI); 1.5–14.3%); 7.2% (95%CI, 3.6–13.9%) and 3.5% (95%CI, 1.7–7.2%) by cohort and was associated with food insecurity in the two larger cohorts (p = 0.03; p = 0.01 respectively). Conclusions Latinx families in the Bay Area with children are experiencing a sharp rise in food insecurity levels during the COVID-19 epidemic. Food insecurity, similar to other indices of poverty, is associated with increased risk for COVID-19 infection. Comprehensive interventions are needed to address food insecurity in Latinx populations and further studies are needed to better assess independent associations between household food insecurity, poor nutritional health and risk of COVID-19 infection.


Author(s):  
Terry L. Birdwhistell ◽  
Deirdre A. Scaggs

Since women first entered the University of Kentucky (UK) in 1880 they have sought, demanded, and struggled for equality within the university. The period between 1880 and 1945 at UK witnessed women’s suffrage, two world wars, and an economic depression. It was during this time that women at UK worked to take their rightful place in the university’s life prior to the modern women’s movement of the 1960s and beyond. The history of women at UK is not about women triumphant, and it remains an untidy story. After pushing for admission into a male-centric campus environment, women created women’s spaces, women’s organizations, and a women’s culture often patterned on those of men. At times, it seemed that a goal was to create a woman’s college within the larger university. However, coeducation meant that women, by necessity, competed with men academically while still navigating the evolving social norms of relationships between the sexes. Both of those paths created opportunities, challenges, and problems for women students and faculty. By taking a more women-centric view of the campus, this study shows more clearly the impact that women had over time on the culture and environment. It also allows a comparison, and perhaps a contrast, of the experiences of UK women with other public universities across the United States.


Author(s):  
Robert L. Clark ◽  
Janet Raye Cowell

This chapter reviews available data on the annuity choices offered to retirees who participate in defined benefit (DB) plans. DB plans are most commonly offered by state and local governments to their employees, and information on annuity options is readily available. The authors examine all state pension plans that cover general state employees and teachers, and develop a table showing the similarities and differences across these approximately eighty separate state retirement plans. The authors determine the proportion of retirees selecting each of the annuity options. Where possible, annuity options in the public sector are compared to those offered by private sector employers. The chapter also reviews the empirical literature on who chooses the various annuity options offered in DB plans. Finally, the authors consider the policy implications of plan design and how this affects the types of annuities offered to retirees.


Author(s):  
Yolonda Youngs

This study traces the development and evolution of Snake River use and management through an in-depth exploration of historic commercial scenic river guiding and concessions on the upper Snake River in Grand Teton National Park (GRTE) from 1950 to the present day. The research is based on a combination of methods including archival research, oral history analysis, historical landscape analysis, and fieldwork. I suggest that a distinct cultural community of river runners and outdoor recreationalists developed in Grand Teton National Park after World War II. In GRTE, a combination of physical, cultural, and technical forces shaped this community’s evolution including the specific geomorphology and dynamic channel patterns of the upper Snake River, the individuals and groups that worked on this river, and changes in boat and gear technology over time. The following paper presents the early results from the first year of this project in 2016 including the work of a graduate student and myself. This study offers connections between the upper Snake River and Grand Teton National Park to broader national trends in the evolution of outdoor recreation and concessions in national parks, the impact of World War II on technological developments for boating, and the cultural history of adventure outdoor recreation and tourism in the United States.   Featured photo by Elton Menefee on Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/AHgCFeg-gXg


Author(s):  
Oleh Bulka

The article is devoted to the particularity of Canada-Mexico bilateral relations in the period from their beginning to signing and entry into force the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It is noted that from the time of first contacts bilateral relations between two countries have developed unevenly with periods of increase and periods of decline. It is determined that in the history of Canada-Mexico relations before signing NAFTA can be identified four main periods. The first one is a period of early contacts that lasted from the end of XIX century to the establishment of the official diplomatic relations between Canada and Mexico in 1944. In this period of time ties between the two countries were extremely weak. The second period lasted from 1944 to the end of the 1960s. This period clearly shows the limits of cooperation between Canada and Mexico after the establishment of the official diplomatic ties, but it is also possible to see a certain coincidence between the values and diplomatic strategies of these countries. The third period of Canada-Mexico relations lasted from the beginning of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s. During this period, both Canada and Mexico try to diversify their foreign policy and strengthen the organizational mechanism of mutual cooperation. But it is also shown that despite the warm political rhetoric, there was some distance in Canada-Mexico relations. The fourth period of the relations lasted from the late 1980s until the NAFTA treaty came into force in 1994. At that time Canadian and Mexican governments began to give priority to economic relations over political and diplomatic ones. It was revealed that the main influencing factors of bilateral relations between Mexico and Canada were the impact of third countries, especially the United Kingdom and the United States, regional and global economic conditions, and the attitude to the bilateral relations of the political elites of both countries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 2190-2207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chantel R. Wetzel ◽  
André E. Punt ◽  

Abstract Ending overfishing and rebuilding fish stocks to levels that provide for optimum sustainable yield is a concern for fisheries management worldwide. In the United States, fisheries managers are legally mandated to end overfishing and to implement rebuilding plans for fish stocks that fall below minimum stock size thresholds. Rebuilding plans should lead to recovery to target stock sizes within 10 years, except in situations where the life history of the stock or environmental conditions dictate otherwise. Federally managed groundfish species along the US West Coast have diverse life histories where some are able to rebuild quickly from overfished status, while others, specifically rockfish (Sebastes spp.), may require decades for rebuilding. A management strategy evaluation which assumed limited estimation error was conducted to evaluate the performance of alternative strategies for rebuilding overfished stocks for these alternative US West Coast life histories. Generally, the results highlight the trade-off between the reduction of catches during rebuilding vs. the length of rebuilding. The most precautionary rebuilding plans requiring the greatest harvest reduction resulted in higher average catches over the entire projection period compared with strategies that required a longer rebuilding period with less of a reduction in rebuilding catch. Attempting to maintain a 50% probability of rebuilding was the poorest performing rebuilding strategy for all life histories, resulting in a large number of changes to the rebuilding plan, increased frequency of failing to meet rebuilding targets, and higher variation in catch. The rebuilding plans that implemented a higher initial rebuilding probability (≥60%) for determining rebuilding fishing mortality and targets generally resulted in fewer changes to the rebuilding plans and rebuilt by the target rebuilding year, particularly for stocks with the longer rebuilding plans (e.g. rockfishes).


1965 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Creagan

The movement of Mexican laborers across the international boundary into the southwestern United States has been occurring since the establishment of a boundary in that area. It is a natural movement of worker toward the source of work. Interests of the governments involved have caused checks to be placed upon this movement of workers. Public Law 78 represented one of the recent attempts of the United States government, through co-operation with the Mexican government, to regulate the movement of migrant workers.In this article I will briefly trace the history of PL 78. The impact of this law upon Mexico and its relevance for United States relations with that country are of importance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 10598-10598
Author(s):  
Reshma L. Mahtani ◽  
Alexander Niyazov ◽  
Katie Lewis ◽  
Lucy Massey ◽  
Alex Rider ◽  
...  

10598 Background: African Americans (AA) have the highest breast cancer (BC) mortality rate. Access to treatment is a known contributing factor. In the past 4 years, several targeted therapies for HER2- BC have become available which require testing for specific biomarkers. This study assessed the impact of race on biomarker testing rates in HER2- ABC pts receiving treatment in the US. Methods: Oncologists were recruited to abstract data from medical charts for the next 8-10 pts receiving treatment with HER2- ABC during Sept 2019-Apr 2020. Pts records were stratified by race and categorized into 3 mutually exclusive cohorts [White/Caucasian (White), AA, Other]. The other race cohort was excluded from this analysis due to small sample size. Differences in pt demographics/clinical characteristics were analyzed via Fisher’s exact tests. Testing rates for actionable biomarkers (i.e. BRCA1/2, PIK3CA, PD-L1) were compared between White and AA pts utilizing logistic regressions controlling for age, known family history of a BRCA-related cancer, hormone receptor (HR) status and practice setting (academic vs. community). Further analyses by age will be presented. Results: This analysis included 378 pts records, provided by 40 oncologists. Mean age was 64 years; 77% had HR+/HER2- ABC; 20% had advanced triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), 3% had ABC with an unknown HR status. Compared to White pts, AA pts were significantly more likely to have advanced TNBC (27% vs. 18%, p<0.05). Compared to White pts, AA pts had significantly lower BRCA1/2 mutation (mut) testing rates (Table). Numerically lower rates of PIK3CAmut and PD-L1 testing were observed among AA pts (Table). BRCA1/2mut positivity rate (germline [g] and/or somatic [s]) was higher among AA vs. White pts (30% vs. 22%). Positivity rate for PIK3CAmut was lower for AA vs. White pts (8% vs. 11%). Conclusions: A higher than expected BRCA1/2mut positivity rate was observed than previously reported in the literature. This is likely because this analysis included s BRCA1/2mut and represented a high risk pt population. Across all biomarkers assessed, AA pts had lower testing rates than White pts. This suggests racial disparities in testing rates of actionable biomarkers. Consistent with guidelines, and with the increased availability of targeted therapies, focused efforts should be developed to increase biomarker testing in AA pts. Funding: Pfizer Biomarker Testing Rates by Race.[Table: see text]


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