A Real Choice for NYC TRS Members: Why I'm Running for Trustee

What’s at stake for 230,000 public educators and $130 billion in retirement assets

Feb 04, 2026

My name is David Kazansky, and I want to be your trustee on the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System board.

This spring, you face an important decision about your pension and your retirement security. At its core, this is a decision about who you want safeguarding something you earn over a lifetime of work.

The election of a member-trustee gives TRS members real power.

The question is whether we choose to use it.

A Real Choice — Not a Symbolic One

Michael Mulgrew and his UFT leadership will announce a candidate of their choosing. But you get to decide who represents you on the TRS board.

Too often, members are presented with what appears to be a choice but functions merely as a symbolic one. My candidacy is about making sure this election offers a real choice, not just the illusion of one.

What Serving as a Trustee Actually Means

I faithfully served as a teacher trustee on the NYC TRS board from 2015 to 2024. That experience taught me that the role of a trustee is not to be taken lightly.

Trustees are responsible for judgment, oversight, and asking the right questions when decisions involve risk. Silence, deference, and inaction can be just as risky as bad decisions. When trustees stop examining long-term economic impacts critically, risk does not magically disappear. It grows.

There was a time when TRS, led by its member-trustees, was widely seen as a leader in combining thoughtful stewardship with strong investment performance. I believe our pension fund should reclaim that role. And I know that my being on the board is a meaningful step in that direction.

The TRS board needs trustees willing to ask hard questions, exercise independent judgment, and bring both the willingness and expertise to make tough decisions.

Why I’m Running Again

After reflection and conversations with family, friends, colleagues, and rank-and-file members, I have decided to run again to represent you as your trustee.

This is familiar territory for me. After all, the UFT enthusiastically endorsed me for each of my previous three campaigns. I have coordinated eight years of trustee elections for the UFT. I know how nominees are selected, how endorsements are made, and how the election should be conducted.

Michael Mulgrew and his UFT leadership will announce a candidate of their choosing. But members are not bound by that decision. You have the power to initiate an election and elect the candidate you believe is best suited to protect your retirement.

That power matters.

Independence Is a Fiduciary Duty

Markets change. Assumptions change. Investment strategies evolve. Pension policy made today has long-term impacts on the retirement security of educators across this city.

Trustees must be willing to engage critically, challenge consensus when necessary, and put members’ long-term interests ahead of convenience, politics, or personal ambition. I have done that work, and I am prepared to do it again.

I know that many members are nearing retirement and focused on protecting what they have earned, while others are just beginning their careers and counting on this pension decades from now. A trustee has a responsibility to take both perspectives seriously, because today’s decisions affect them all.

In the weeks ahead, I will make the case for electing a trustee who will ask hard questions on the TRS board. Independence is not a talking point. It is the foundation of a trustee’s fiduciary duty. I will speak openly about my experience, my judgment, and my independence, because those qualities matter when real risk is involved.

Serving as my alternate in the trustee election is Ben Morgenroth, an adjunct lecturer in mathematics at Hunter College and a veteran NYC public school teacher. He holds degrees in applied mathematics and economics, and previously worked as a quantitative analyst evaluating investment risk and performance. His experience gives me confidence that members would be well served if the alternate provision were ever needed.

A Pension That Belongs to All of Us

I will need your help. Petitions must be signed, and conversations must happen. I cannot visit schools during the workday the way full-time union representatives can, but I will be responsive and show up when it matters.

If you have questions, I will answer them. If I do not have an answer immediately, I will be straight with you about that, and I will make sure to find it and get back to you—because every question I hear from one person is usually something thousands of others are thinking about, or worrying about, too.

To every UFT member, CSA member, and PSC-CUNY member in NYC TRS: this pension belongs to all of us. It was built over more than a century through hard work and shared commitment. It deserves trustees who take that responsibility seriously.

You have the power to initiate an election and elect the person you believe is best equipped to protect your retirement.

If you give me your trust, your support, and your vote, I will honor all three by exercising independent judgment, asking hard questions when risk is involved, and putting your long-term retirement security first. Always.