Pennsylvania School Pension Fund To Divest Millions Of Dollars In Russian Assets
HARRISBURG (KDKA) - The state's public school employees retirement board voted late Thursday afternoon to divest – or sell – any pension funds invested in Russia or Belarus.
KDKA money editor Jon Delano was the first to report the board had invested millions of dollars in Russia, reporting earlier this week that PSERS, the Public School Employees Retirement System, had invested nearly $300 million in Russia, much to the surprise of many teachers who had no idea their pension money was being invested this way.
Originally, the PSERS board was not planning to meet until March 11. But late Thursday afternoon, the board held an emergency session and took action.
By unanimous vote at a short emergency meeting, the PSERS board adopted this resolution, ordering that the pension funds of teachers and public school employees be divested "from investments in Russia and Belarus as expeditiously as possible."
WATCH: KDKA's Jon Delano reports
The action came shortly after Gov. Tom Wolf sent a strongly worded letter urging PSERS to "take immediate action to divest any public pension funds from investments connected to Russia," adding, "We must do what is within our power to bring an end to the suffering of the people of Ukraine."
"When I was a soldier in Bosnia and seeing tragedy like this, we made absolutely the correct decision [today]," said Jason Davis, chair of the PSERS Investment Committee.
Davis is a teacher at Penn Trafford High School.
"This is a place that has become a pariah. Vladimir Putin has done a disservice to the Russian people, and I want to make sure that I say this. This isn't against the Russian people. This is against Vladimir Putin and his regime," said Davis.
"This was an easy one," added Eric DiTullio, a member of the Seneca Valley School Board and vice chair of the PSERS Investment Committee. "There wasn't a lot of discussion. There's no two sides. It's right and wrong, and it's right to divest."
DiTullio said he was not surprised by the board's quick action.
"It's common sense. It was an easy thing to do," he said.
Both Davis and DiTullio say that it's not likely the pension fund lost much money if these investments, but if they did, there's plenty of time to make that money back.
Again, these dollars represented just one-half of one percent of PSERS total investments.