Authored by Stephen Soukup via American Greatness,
The California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) is the largest teachers-only public pension system in the country, with more than $400 billion in assets under management. As of December 31, 2024, CalSTRS directly held three-quarters of a million shares of Target Corporation, worth more than $100 million.
If one were to add in the Target holdings of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (the second and third-largest teachers-only plans in the country, respectively), then the total value of shares owned would jump by another $60-plus million. Add in the remaining state teacher retirement systems, plus the city systems of Chicago, Denver, Kansas City (Missouri), New York City, St. Louis, and St. Paul, and the total value of Target shares directly held by teacher pensions is well into the multiple hundreds of millions, at the very least. Add in the value of indirect shares held through various index funds and ETFs, and teacher retirement plans hold literally billions of dollars' worth of Target stock. Given all this, it's more than fair to say that Target is a key component of teachers' pension portfolios and, as a result, the company's long-term success is directly linked to American teachers' retirement security.
And yet...
This past weekend, the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers' union in the country and likely the most prominent, launched a new campaign urging parents and students to boycott Target for back-to-
