A Slippery Slope
The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board refuses to divest from private prison companies despite both their underperformance in the stock market and a growing number of educators in Santa Fe who oppose the investments.
Even though Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education recently voted to support divestment in conjunction with Horizons Sustainable Financial Services and the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, a local immigrant rights group, the Dreamers say the board won't give them an audience to discuss other investment options. That's despite both The Geo Group, Inc. and CoreCivic, two major private prison firms, trailing behind the investment index the board uses.
The ERB's total portfolio as of June 30 was $13.3 billion. Of that, $3.1 billionor 23.6%is managed by the board's staff members, but the balance of the portfolio is managed by outside investment managers. The outside managers are hired by ERB's investment committee, says Jan Goodwin, the board's executive director.
Over the last year, Geo Group has underperformed by 22% and CoreCivic by 13%, according to Morningstar, an investment data and analysis firm.
Read more: https://www.sfreporter.com/news/2019/11/27/a-slippery-slope/
(Santa Fe Reporter)