Educator with top pension advocates reform
Photo courtesy Jim EnochsJim Enochs, 75, is the top-paid CalSTRS pensioner and advocates system reform.
Jim Enochs of Ceres, Stanislaus County has the biggest pension in the entire California State Teachers' Retirement System – a hefty $285,460.
But he says he’s just as worried as anyone that the soaring cost of public employee pensions is driving the Golden State into a permanent financial hole.
Meanwhile, if you think he’s one of those guys who worked the system to spike his benefits and then bailed out at the first opportunity – please, he asks, think again.
“I am not the least bit embarrassed by my retirement,” he said in a recent interview.
But, he added: “I do understand, when the taxpayers say they’re mad” about what experts have taken to calling California’s pension bomb. “It ticks me off, too,” he said.
Enochs, 75, spent a lifetime in Modesto schools, first as a government teacher and then, for 21 years, as superintendent of schools.
His innovative “The Fourth R: Responsibility” educational program won national acclaim and