October 27, 2015. We are writing on behalf of the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR), the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS), the National Education Association (NEA), the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
NCTR represents 68 state, territorial, and local pension systems, which serve more than 19 million active and retired teachers, non-teaching school personnel, and other public employees. NCPERS represents more than 550 public sector pension funds throughout the United States and Canada with approximately 21 million public employees and retirees as members, including teachers as well as firefighters, law enforcement officers, and other public servants. NEA has 3 million members who work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs. NASRA’s members are the directors of the nation’s state, territorial, and largest statewide public retirement systems. Finally, AFT, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, represents 1.6 million teachers, early childhood educators, paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel, higher education faculty and professional staff, nurses and other healthcare professionals in more than 3,000 local affiliates nationwide. Read more.