Sounds of explosions wake me at 3:13 a.m. on my second morning in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, a city roughly the size of Thousand Oaks and downriver 160 miles from Kyiv. The remote-but-bustling urban center is surrounded by endless acres of black, loamy farmland. Yet, like all other cities in this troubled nation, it has not been spared the vagaries of war — including this morning’s missile attack on an energy facility that also damaged a nearby village.

More than 900 retired Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) employees received annual pensions totaling $52,395,165 during 2021. In the Ventura County Community College...