by Allison Ross

Three teachers from duPont Manual High are challenging longtime Jefferson County Teachers Association leader Brent McKim in the union’s presidential election, saying they want to see the union push harder to fix the state’s woefully underfunded teacher pension system.

U.S. history teacher Randolph Wieck said he and the other Manual teachers decided they would all run against McKim to try to force more conversation about how the union is dealing with the retirement system problems, among other issues.

“We want JCTA to force legislation,” said Wieck, who in November filed a lawsuit contending that the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System needs to do more to get funding from the state and to communicate its financial problems with teachers. That lawsuit has since been dismissed, but Wieck has said he intends to refile.

Wieck said having multiple teachers run for election against McKim was a strategy to bring more awareness. “I didn’t want to be seen as a rogue agent,” he said.

He said several other Manual teachers also considered running but didn’t file in time because of the recent snowstorms.

Glenn Zwanzig, another Manual teacher who is running for union president, said the main reason he decided to run was over the troubles with the teacher retirement system. “Our current leadership is not dealing with it,” Zwanzig said. “They’re putting their heads in the ground. They don’t want to upset people in Frankfort.”

Zwanzig is among several teachers who have donated to the Teacher Retirement Legal Fund, which is dedicated to “ensuring Kentucky teachers get the retirement they have been promised” and has pushed to get the union to file a lawsuit against the state to that effect.

But McKim said he was advised that a lawsuit would have little chance of success, and instead could alienate lawmakers the union needs on its side.

“They have an ill-founded belief that a lawsuit would be a silver bullet,” McKim said of his opponents. “We’re working on a realistic strategy to address the problem.”

McKim disputed characterizations that he and the union weren’t doing enough on the KTRS issue, ticking off a number of initiatives, including social media and postcard campaigns, lobbying and emails to members with updates on progress and roadblocks. He said JCTA’s efforts in recent years have made the pension shortfall a “front burner issue” to legislators.

KTRS faces around $14 billion in unfunded liabilities, and needs nearly $490 million a year to fully fund benefits promised to teachers. The Kentucky House has advanced legislation to authorize $3.3 billion in bonds to shore up the system. But the state Senate doesn’t appear sold on the bond plan, with some saying that borrowing billions to pay for pensions could limit the state’s debt capacity and hurt credit ratings.

Senate Republicans are pushing for a bipartisan panel of lawmakers to review KTRS for possible reforms and financing next year.

McKim’s three challengers say they don’t expect to have a good chance of winning the election but say the balloting is a vehicle to get their viewpoints across to Jefferson County Public Schools teachers. The candidates are able to write short statements to voters, and were allowed to give speeches during a recent meeting.

“It was a way to make people aware of how bad things are with the union,” said Manual High teacher Kris Tatro, the other candidate in the race. Tatro said she does not actually want to become union president.

“I wouldn’t be able to do a very good job as president of an organization as big as JCTA, but neither is our current president,” she said.

McKim has been JCTA president nearly 14 years. He said he has only been challenged once before for re-election, in 2012.

JCTA’s voting is online, and runs from March 25 to April 1, according to the candidates.