NOTE: To find the most current posts, please scroll down to the two big red arrows. You can't miss them.

STRS Ohio Watchdogs: a public Facebook group you can join

STRS OHIO WATCHDOGS

by Cindy Murphy

STRS Ohio Watchdogs monitor the management and investment practices of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.

We advocate for prudent and transparent investments, the restoration of the COLA for retired teachers, and the rollback of additional years of service required for active teachers.

This site will provide you with information about the work that is being done by Ohio's active and retired teachers to preserve our retirement benefits. Check back often for updates.

Join our conversation on Facebook. You don't have to be a member of STRS Ohio to join. Everyone who is interested in learning more about the management and investment practices of STRS Ohio is welcome.

Use this link to join our pack on Facebook:.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ohiostrswatchdogs 

Have you joined the Ohio STRS Member Only Forum on Facebook?

If you are a member of STRS Ohio and have a Facebook account, you are eligible to join thousands of others who make up the Ohio STRS Member Only Forum. This is a closed group of retirees and actives who are advocating for the return of our COLA, which, as you no doubt know, your STRS Board SUSPENDED on April 20, 2017. Two of our members, Bob Buerkle and Dean Dennis, filed a class action lawsuit against STRS on May 23, 2019 suing for the reinstatement of our COLA. The text of the lawsuit can be found on this blog. You can go here to join the Forum and sign the petition, already signed by more than 20,000 people, for the return of our COLA: Ohio STRS Member Only Forum

Click image to enlarge

Angel of Grief

Garrison Keillor

Items of interest in the Archives: The 2013 STRS Board Election

Many people have been very interested in reading about the irregularities of the 2013 STRS board election. There are many posts related to this topic, beginning the first week of April 2013, after the ballots were mailed to retirees from STRS. You can find them by going to the Archives for this blog, over in the right sidebar, and clicking on dates beginning with April 7, 2013. Dennis Leone announced his candidacy for a retired seat in November, 2012. There is a lot of information about him in the Archives, beginning with November 12, 2012 posts. If you want to read only the best stuff about that infamous election of 2013, go over to the sidebar on the right of where you are now, which is the archives of previous articles on this blog. Scroll down to April 2013. That's where the "interesting" articles begin. You will see many, clear up to the middle of May 2013.5/28/13

.....so what REALLY happened in 2003 that touched off a firestorm at STRS that is still smoldering today? Read it here, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. (Hint: It ain't over yet!)

More here (Akron Beacon Journal, 2003)

A MUST READ: Dennis Leone Reform Initiatives as an STRS Board Member  Between 2005 and 2009

To find current, day-to-day posts -- pull your scroll bar down a ways, just below the big red arrows (you can't miss them). Thanks.

............................................................................................

Find your state representative and senator here.

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/

I know, it's weird.........

Many posts that appear "at the top" for a while are eventually moved down, where they can be found under their original posting dates. Also, if you are confused by the postdating, this is done to keep these posts up there; otherwise, they drift down when new posts are added. It's a "blog thing" which I have no other way to control. KB

Handy links: Contacts, information and more (short version)
This is an abbreviated version of the original 'Handy links' post. Click here to view a more complete list. (Some of it is old.)

STRS Board.....STRS website

Board calendar

E-mail contacts at STRS (old, but some may still work)

Map/directions to STRS, 275 E. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43215

STRS "Membership Survey" (spoof)
State legislators.......State of Ohio website

Latest OEA salaries (2011) over 100K; USDL report

Rich DeColibus' PowerPoint presentation STRS' PBI Program; Does it work?: click December 21, 2008 (blog Archive) and scroll down to December 23 posts.

Charts: PBI (bonus) payments

Popular links; click, then scroll down: charts, graphs, investment staff, lists, spreadsheets

$TR$ Inve$tment $taff $$$ (old)

SPECIAL (must read):

Dennis Leone's INVESTIGATIVE REPORT on STRS: May 16, 2003...Who is Dennis Leone?........(PDF version)...More on Dennis Leone .......(PDF version)

Dennis Leone: "Catcher of Thieves"

Dennis Leone's STRS Report to ORTA, March 2007

Dennis Leone's Testimony at the Statehouse 9/5/12
The Plain Dealer article that started it all

Dennis Leone: Factors Driving STRS 30-Year Planning and Revenue Assumptions (with charts)

Historic PBI vote, January 16, 2009

Charts: PBI (bonus) payments

CURRENT POSTS BELOW

Bill Boone: STRS Board was a victim of a hostile takeover. Teachers like me are at risk.

From ORTA

July 24, 2025

STRS Board was a victim of a hostile takeover. Teachers like me are at risk.

When politicians rewrite the rules to sideline elected representatives, it sends a chilling message: your voice doesn’t matter if it contradicts our agenda.

By Bill Boone, Guest Columnist

The Columbus Dispatch

When I started teaching in the '90s, there was an understanding of what you were getting into with a teaching career.

You would be paid significantly less than other professionals with equivalent levels of education, but in exchange you’d get three things: summers, affordable health care and a solid pension.

That third pillar — our pension through the State Teachers Retirement System  — was weakened after the Great Recession, leaving many educators in doubt about when we can retire and what kind of standard of living we’ll be able to afford when we do.

That is the backdrop for the unprecedented STRS member advocacy  which culminated in the election of seven reform-minded STRS Board members who have challenged the status quo and responsibly restored some of our retirement benefits.

Unfortunately, in one late-night action at the very end of the state budget process, the legislature negated all of that work and stole our voice in our own pension planby removing the majority of our elected members and replacing them with political appointees.

This hostile takeover gives partisan politicians control over $100 billion in STRS assets.

The STRS Board currently has 11 members: four political appointees and seven members elected by active and retired educators. Under the new state budget though, four new appointees will be added in September, giving appointed members the majority, and four elected seats will phase out as the terms of current members end. In just three years, there will be eight appointed members and only three elected members.

This applies only to STRS, retaining an elected member majority in the other four Ohio public pension system boards. It is a targeted attack on educators that follows a long campaign of misinformation, anonymous allegations and politicized investigations against elected members of the board.

State leaders operated in the dark

Under the direction of Speaker Matt Huffman and Senate President Rob McColley, the budget conference committee inserted this proposal from Rep. Adam Bird at the last possible moment — it wasn’t in the governor’s proposed budget or the budget legislation from the House or the Senate — because it would not stand up to even the smallest amount of scrutiny.

Elected members on the board have fulfilled their campaign promises to increase transparency about the STRS Board and to restore benefits without risking the long- term financial security of the fund.

After a decade-long drought, retirees saw three of cost-of-living adjustments approved since the reformers took office. Moreover, the years of service required for full retirement benefits were reduced from 35 years to 32 years for active educators. These reforms were far from reckless; they were implemented with a commitment to financial responsibility.

Would you trust them with your retirement?

The STRS funding ratio has improved significantly, from 56% in 2012 to 82.5% in 2024. The amortization period for unfunded liabilities has also decreased to 10.1 years. This indicates that the fund’s long-term health is being prioritized.

Even Gov. Mike DeWine told a reporter earlier this year that, “I’m looking at it from afar, but it seems that the board is working and working in a productive way.” Yet DeWine failed to veto this when he had a chance.

When politicians rewrite the rules to sideline elected representatives, it sends a chilling message: your voice doesn’t matter if it contradicts our agenda.

The STRS is not merely a pension fund; it’s a lifeline for over 300,000 active educators and retirees. Ohio Republicans, in their quest for power, have not only stripped away the voices of educators, but have also undermined the very essence of democracy. I simply do not trust them to control our pension.

Would you?

Read online at https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2025/07/24/ohio-teachers-pension-strs-board-republican/85327204007/

Trina Kay Prufer: A Public Retirement System Cannot Work for Members if it is Designed to Fail

By Trina Kay Prufer

July 19, 2025

A Public Retirement System Cannot Work for Members if it is Designed to Fail

"STRS is a failure because RULES and LAWS did not apply to the STRS system. STRS was allowed to spend itself into enormous debt. Laws were re-written (2012 “reform“ legislation) transferring this debt onto members. This was all by design."

By looking at the total picture of STRS as a public retirement system, it will never live up to its name. It loses money every day. That is by design.

A retirement system can only fulfill its obligations if the underlying financial structure pays for benefits. STRS cannot do this because its input ( employer + employee + investment income) is less than outflow. The losses turn into debt, and the interest on the debt is enormous. Adding insult to injury, management costs are treated as if they have nothing to do with outflow (the “drop in the bucket” rational). WASTE is everywhere.

Retired teachers must live on a diminishing benefit, even though their invested contributions continue to make money for the system. Those who work for the system prosper. STRS cannot or will not pay what it owes to retirees, and the law allows this to happen. In essence, STRS is a state-run scam.

What does a healthy, normal public retirement system look like? It is actuarially sound. The law protects the benefit in effect at the TIME of retirement. The benefit is PRE-FUNDED. Promises are kept. There is real oversight. The KEY element is that the state underwrites the benefit, assuring there is a mechanism for monitoring the system, and the system is run for the benefit of members.

If the above sounds familiar… just read the pre-2012 ORC and plan booklets provided to these same retirees. It’s all there...however, these essential protections were conveniently ignored.

STRS is a failure because RULES and LAWS did not apply to the STRS system. STRS was allowed to spend itself into enormous debt. Laws were re-written (2012 “reform“ legislation) transferring this debt onto members. This was all by design.

Whistle-blower suicides at STRS? Who knows for sure, but they're on our radar again.

Original post date: July 15, 2005

Link to two articles in one post: https://kathiebracy.blogspot.com/2012/07/woman-falls-to-her-death-at-strs.html

Comments made from one STRS member to another, 07/15/2025: 

"Oh, did you read the article? This took place at the STRS building on Broad Street in Columbus [in 2012]. This woman is said to have been blowing a whistle on happenings at STRS. This woman's family was paid a settlement by STRS to not talk about anything. Truth. That is not hearsay. 

"She is not the only whistle-blower employee to have a questionable death at STRS on Broad Street. There is another associated with the parking garage. Yup. I cannot make this stuff up." (No source cited.)

Trina Kay Prufer: Does STRS have a Humanitarian Purpose?

Froom Trina Prufer

July 15, 2025

The truth is… STRS is a detriment to its members and a cautionary tale to all other public workers and pension systems in the nation. The State of Ohio needs to face this reality and rectify the injustice. Disseminating disinformation to the media, filing phony lawsuits and changing the composition of the board only intensifies the problem. A public pension system is only as strong as the laws protecting its members. Otherwise, it just turns into a scam.

Does STRS have a Humanitarian Purpose?

STRS was founded in 1919 to provide teachers with a secure and dignified retirement as compensation for their dedication to Ohio’s children. Ohio could be proud in that it was one of the first in the nation to have created an actuarially sound pension system PROTECTING its teachers from poverty.

The very CORE of the financial model was the pre-funding of the benefit, so there was NO RISK to members. A promise made was a promise kept… that was until 2012, when “ reform” legislation passed, turning the original funding model upside down.

Today, STRS is the WORST example of what happens when a public retirement system goes bad. From a humanitarian perspective, hard working public servants, who were promised retirement security throughout the lifespan, were double-crossed. Ohio’s retirees, survivors and the disabled were left with a benefit that significantly diminishes over time; additionally, Ohio’s active teachers pay more into the system than the defined-benefit is worth. In effect, the system eats its own.

So, what is the humanitarian purpose of STRS? Does it have any benefit to society? What happens to a cohort of aging public teachers when they are cheated by their own government?

The truth is… STRS is a detriment to its members and a cautionary tale to all other public workers and pension systems in the nation. The State of Ohio needs to face this reality and rectify the injustice. Disseminating disinformation to the media, filing phony lawsuits and changing the composition of the board only intensifies the problem. A public pension system is only as strong as the laws protecting its members. Otherwise, it just turns into a scam.

David Pepper: "They built the pension through their hard work and their money, and they live off the pension and how well it does for the rest of their lives, so having them have a majority stake in that board makes sense."

Radical overhaul of the STRS Ohio Retirement Board

From ORTA

July 9, 2025

Despite a weekend-long email and telephone campaign from Ohio teachers and retirees, Gov. Mike DeWine let stand an overhaul of the State Teachers Retirement System Board.

"They built the pension through their hard work and their money, and they live off the pension and how well it does for the rest of their lives, so having them have a majority stake in that board makes sense." - David Pepper

View video here.

Toledo Blade: Group looking to block STRS changes

From ORTA

July 9, 2025

Budget alters pension board

A group representing some retired teachers says it is exploring its options to try to block a move to replace four elected members on their embattled pension fund board with political appointees.

The language had been added at the last minute by a conference committee to the two-year budget signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine last week.

The budget would gradually eliminate three of five board members elected to the State Teachers Retirement System board by active teachers and one of two elected by retirees.

Those four elected positions would gradually be replaced over the next three years with appointed representatives of the Chancellor of Higher Education, the Ohio Treasurer, Senate President, and Speaker of the House.

Robin Rayfield, executive director of the Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association, said its members worked within the existing system to elect members and influence board decisions only to see lawmakers and the governor interfere.

“Actives and retired members voted in a board that would listen to their concerns and make reforms to STRS,” he said. “Unfortunately, the elected officials are threatened by having the STRS board led by the very people that pay into the system. A bigger question is, ‘What are the elected officials afraid of?’.”

The budget did not make changes to the makeup of the state’s four other public employee pension boards.

“There’s been pretty widespread concern about some of the management of the State Teachers Retirement System...,” Rep. Brian Stewart (R., Ashville), the conference committee’s chairman, said shortly after the language was added. “We’re trying to respond to that.”

“We are moving toward a system of appointed board members,” he said. “I think it’s not good policy to have investment decisions for a public pension being made by people who are directly benefited by those decisions. That is not sound financial management. We are going to transition to a process where you have investment professionals and people who are not essentially voting on their own benefits package. ...”

Barring some surprise, the transition will begin when this provision takes effect at the end of the September.

The budget would prohibit any member with contributions in the pension fund from serving as board chairman or vice chairman. The newly appointed members could have no such contributions on deposit with the fund.

Mr. DeWine used his line-item veto 67 times before signing the budget into law. But, despite calls for him to do so, he did not target the STRS language. The governor has butted heads with some members of the board in recent years, at one point rescinding his own appointment of investment expert Wade Steen and replacing him, only to see the courts force Mr. Steen’s reinstatement months later. Mr. Steen’s term has since expired.

The board shakeup will roll out even as a civil lawsuit brought by Attorney General Dave Yost against Mr. Steen and the board’s current president, Rudy Fichtenbaum, heads for trial on Oct. 27.

Mr. Yost has accused the two of colluding to convince the STRS board to invest heavily with a “shell company that lacks any indicia of legitimacy and has backdoor ties to Steen and Fichtenbaum themselves.”

Mr. Steen and Mr. Fichtenbaum have denied any wrongdoing and have been fighting the lawsuit.

The precariousness of the current reformist majority was evident in last month’s narrow vote to hire Steven C. Toole — an Ohio State University graduate, former manager of public pension funds in North Carolina, and most recently senior product management for Principal Financial Group in Iowa.

He starts his new job on Monday.

The narrow majority that brought him back to Ohio is destined to weaken as the phaseout of the elected posts begins. Legislative leaders, Mr. DeWine, and Treasurer Robert Sprague had urged the sharply divided board to hold off on filling the position. As of June 30, 2024, STRS managed a $96 billion fund on behalf of nearly 550,000 active, inactive, and retired members. It is among the largest public employee pension funds in the nation.

By Jim Provance
Blade Columbus Bureau Chief

Read this editorial online at https://eblade.toledoblade.com/.pf/showstory/20250709059/1 

View video at https://www.orta.org/

Timeline: Changes coming to STRS board

STRS Board Timeline

From ORTA

July 9, 2025

Absent any legal challenges or legislative changes, this is how the STRS Board composition will change over time.

Through August 31, 2025 — 4 appointees and 7 elected (11 total). Elected members: Correthers, Sellers, Jones, Davidson, Flanigan, Fichtenbaum, Harkness,

September 1, 2025 - September 28, 2025 — 4 appointees and 7 elected (11 total). Elected members: Sellers, Jones, Davidson, Flanigan, Fichtenbaum, Harkness, Smith)

September 28, 2025 e- August 31, 2026 — 8 appointees and 7 elected (15 total). Elected members: Sellers, Jones, Davidson, Flanigan, Fichtenbaum, Harkness, Smith)

September 1, 2026- August 31, 2027 — 8 appointees and 5 elected (13 total). Elected members: Davidson, Flanigan, Fichtenbaum, Harkness, Smith)

September 1, 2027 - August 31, 2028 — 8 appointees and 4 elected (12 total). Elected members: Flanigan, Fichtenbaum, Harkness, Smith)

September 1, 2028 - August 31, 2029 — 8 appointees and 3 elected (11 total). Elected members: Fichtenbaum, Harkness, Smith)

Trina Prufer: What bothers me most is the way in which the state government, with the stroke of a pen, took over control of our retirement savings. It was done in the dead of night, in secret and was carried out to circumvent the legislative process.

A Bad Dream 

By Trina  Prufer

July 2, 2025

We don’t yet know the extent of the possible financial damage to us as individuals, but we must find out. We may not be able to do anything about it, yet, but we can expose STRS for what it is… an organization that makes a mockery of democracy and the public pension system.

It is 5:00 in the morning and I have been awake for about a hour, still unable to shake off the unease from an anxiety dream about being lost. I realize that it’s just a dream, but the fear is still real. I am 75 years old, and have been hit with the fact that I have been scammed by the very government I believed would fulfill its promise of financial security and peace of mind in old age. 

I really hate saying this…however STRS, in cahoots with bad state actors, is run like a criminal organization. How else to explain how our collective retirement savings could have been taken over by a group of politicians? We have no guarantees as to what our future benefits will look like, and there are no checks and balances on the malfeasance. The laws of the State of Ohio do not apply to us. If fact, the law has been distorted, twisted into a pretzel and used against us. 

What bothers me most is the way in which the state government, with the stroke of a pen, took over control of our retirement savings. It was done in the dead of night, in secret and was carried out to circumvent the legislative process. It will only intensify the financial injustice of not receiving the benefit we worked for over the course of our working lives. I don’t believe anything this DUPLICITOUS has ever happened to a group of public teachers before. 

We don’t yet know the extent of the possible financial damage to us as individuals, but we must find out. We may not be able to do anything about it, yet, but we can expose STRS for what it is… an organization that makes a mockery of democracy and the public pension system.

Despite campaign from teachers, DeWine leaves pension changes in budget

From ORTA

Jul 1, 2025

Colleen Marshall reports on the overhaul of STRS Ohio Board.

Despite a weekend-long email and telephone campaign from Ohio teachers and retirees, Gov. Mike DeWine let stand an overhaul of the State Teachers Retirement System Board.

Watch Colleen Marshall's report online at https://www.nbc4i.com/video/despite-campaign-from-teachers-dewine-leaves-pension-changes-in-budget/10854954

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs state’s $60 billion budget in the final hour 

Read the story here.

 

Published: July 01, 2025

---

DeWine signs flat income tax into law

Governor OKs Ohio budget with Browns stadium funds

BY JIM PROVANCE BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF

COLUMBUS — Gov. Mike DeWine late Monday signed off on $600 million in funding to help the owners of the Cleveland Browns build a new domed stadium in neighboring Brook Park, one of the biggest ticket items in the state budget passed by fellow Republicans.

He also put his signature to what has become the centerpiece of the budget — a $1 billion-plus tax cut for those earning over $100,000 a year as Ohio becomes the 15th state with a flat income tax.

But before signing House Bill 96 into law, the governor used his line-item veto authority 67 times. Mr. DeWine plans a news conference later Tuesday to further discuss his decisions.

He struck a plan to force school districts to lower property tax bills if their budgetary reserves are equal to more than 40 percent of their operating budgets. He also restored the 90-year-old sales tax exemptions for newspapers and printing operations that the budget would have eliminated.

He also struck a provision forcing public libraries to segregate materials dealing with sexual orientation and gender so that they can’t be accessed by minors. This would have occurred at the same time that the budget is eliminating their guaranteed slice of state revenues, something the governor could not reverse.

“This budget builds upon my commitment to make Ohio the best place for everyone to live their version of the American Dream,” Mr. DeWine said. “It prioritizes our children, empowers our work force, and strengthens our communities. We are investing in the people of Ohio, not just today, but for generations to come.”

The idea of using public funds to help the Haslam Sports Group build the $2.4 billion facility, even as Cleveland has sued to try to keep the stadium in the city, has proven controversial from the start.

Democrats and Republicans alike had called for the governor to wield his line-item veto authority to remove the language, but the governor let it stand, his office confirmed.

When House Bill 96 left the General Assembly last week, the plan totaled just over $200 billion over the biennium, counting both state and federal dollars.

Despite his arguments that Ohio’s income tax was already competitive and the state needed to invest in its future, Mr. DeWine kept the provision that has Ohio joining neighbors Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky as flat tax states.

Ohio’s ultimate flat rate of 2.75 percent by next year would be the lowest among all of them.

The elimination of the top income bracket would lead to a tax cut for those earning more than $100,000, as that rate drops from 3.5 percent to 3.125 percent this year and 2.75 percent next year.

Those earning between $26,050 and $100,000 will not see a tax cut, while those earning less would still owe no tax.

While the governor was able to strike provisions, he couldn’t add language or substitute numbers.

Not a single Democrat supported the budget.

“Republicans just made Vivek Ramaswamy even richer,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Kathleen Clyde said. “Instead of supporting Ohio families, the Republican legislature passed a budget that only helps their billionaire friends and special interests.

“Ohioans deserve better, and Republicans will have to answer for this disastrous budget in the next election cycle,” she said.

A handful of Republicans joined them in opposition, in some cases because of their opposition to the stadium funding.

The idea of using public funds for the project was never the problem among the big three at the budget negotiation table. Mr. DeWine, the House, and the Senate all supported the concept. It was just a matter of how to go about it.

The governor wanted to raise the tax on sports betting operators to fuel a fund that would benefit this and similar sports stadium and arena projects as well as youth recreation. He argued that the state shouldn’t keep using taxpayer-backed borrowing to pay for such projects.

The House, in turn, nixed that idea and promptly proposed to do exactly that with a 30-year bond package.

Ultimately, the budget conference committee went with the Senate’s idea of taking $1.7 billion out of $4.8 billion in forgotten bank accounts, rent security and utility deposits, uncashed checks, and other unclaimed funds placed with the state for safekeeping until the owners come calling.

Of the $1.7 billion, the plan immediately funds the Browns stadium and sets aside $400 million more for others expected to come calling, such as the Cincinnati Bengals for renovations of their existing riverfront stadium.

Also surviving is language changing the so-called “Modell Law,” created after Art Modell moved the Browns franchise to Baltimore 25 years ago, leaving behind just the team’s name.

The law now states that past taxpayer investment could be clawed back when a team move occurs only when it’s an out-of-state move. That undercuts a Cleveland lawsuit trying to block the move.

Among provisions vetoed were:

● An expansion of school vouchers through creation of Education Savings Accounts to pay for tuition and other school expenses at private schools.

● A prohibition on H2Ohio funds being used to acquire land and easements, something Mr. DeWine noted is needed for water quality projects like wetland development.

● An elimination of replacement levies and certain other types of property tax levies.

● A prohibition on using local government power of eminent domain to obtain property for recreational trails.

● A repeal of current efforts to keep children under the age of 4 continuously enrolled in Medicaid.

● A requirement that local school board members appear on the ballot with partisan labels attached.

This article may be read here.

To Governor DeWine...more than a drop in the bucket

To Governor DeWine...more than a drop in the bucket

June 30, 2025

Dear Governor DeWine,

I'm sure you have heard from many active and retired teachers in the last few days, urging you to please line-item veto the part of the budget bill that throws half a million Ohio teachers under the bus regarding their pension system, STRS Ohio.

If this bill is allowed to go through as written, you can be sure the messages you have received so far are but a drop in the bucket, compared to what you will receive if that bill goes through without intervention from you.

Up to half a million teachers will be sending a much stronger message at the ballot box in ALL future elections that involve all legislators and other politicians who do NOT show support for Ohio's teachers. We are fed up, sir, and it is very clear to us that YOU AND YOUR POLITICAL COHORTS ARE NOT JUST "PART" OF THE PROBLEM; YOU ARE THE PROBLEM ITSELF.

Do the right thing, Mr. DeWine. Start cleaning up the mess you and your friends have created, NOW.

Katherine B. Bracy

Retired Ohio Teacher

More insights from Trina: The Example STRS Sets for Every Public Pension System in the Nation

From Trina Prufer 

June 29, 2025

All eyes should be on the State of Ohio for the precedent it has set in exploiting educators. If other public pension systems were to copy its practices, they would destroy the public pension system in the US. 

Below are some examples: 

1. In Ohio, teachers have no guarantees whatsoever that the retirement plan will be followed. The benefit is not protected by the state constitution, the retirement contract, the law or as a property right. In effect, the type of retirement system STRS operates under is called a “gratuity” pension, which means a gift.
2. The very definition of a defined-benefit has been turned upside down. A public pension defined-benefit is commonly understood to NOT have any financial risk for the member. Paradoxically, an STRS “defined-benefit” is only “defined” by its contribution rate. The payout phase is ALL risk, with the payment of a COLA dependent on something called the “ integrity“ of the system, which does not have a definition. 
3. There is little to no oversight by the State that STRS operates for the benefit of members. Although that responsibility has been assigned to the Ohio Retirement Study Council, audits do not happen on time, half of its scheduled meetings are canceled and obvious transgressions, such as a million dollars wasted on fine art are rationalized as being acceptable.
4. The contribution rate for active teachers is 14%, which is higher than the normal cost of the benefit, which is 11%. The contribution rate for the employer is 14%. The financial model is inadequate to pay obligations and the system pays out more than it takes in. The financial model is designed to fail.
5. All statutes governing STRS can be changed by the stroke of a pen, dependent on the whims of the state legislature and the political party in the majority. 

In fact, its governance structure was just radically changed from member majority to political appointee majority, taking away stakeholders’ ability to have meaningful input. This change was made in the dead of night and as a rider to a budget bill. There was no input from members, no study of its possible consequences and no concern for turning STRS into a sham retirement system. 

STRS is now being run for the benefit of the State, its employees, politicians and Wall Street. Because Ohio is a non-Social Security State, older retirees were made reliant on the benefit assured at the time of retirement. In 2012, the Ohio Legislature determined that pension obligations can be changed after the fact if necessary to “sustain” the system. What followed is that classroom teachers, who were promised an automatic 3% COLA at the time of retirement, must now live on a meager benefit that diminishes with inflation. 

An STRS defined-benefit does not prevent poverty, it creates it. Ohio’s weak (or lack of) pension protections have allowed the state legislature to enrich the coffers of politicians and legalize the theft of members’ contributions. If left to stand, and used as an example for other public pension systems to follow, the defined-benefit model will be dead. Ohio has led the country in exploiting the inadequacies of pension law and impoverishing the very workers its public pension systems were designed to protect.

Trina Kay Prufer

6/29/2025

David Pepper: UPDATE: The Overnight Coup by Politicians Over Teachers/Retirees, and $90B!

A Brutal/Sneak Attack on Democracy and Retirees

By David Pepper
Jun 27, 2025

As painful as it is, I often journey to the Ohio statehouse to witness for myself just what a broken, cynical, anti-democratic, out-of-touch and lawless place it is. Years of gerrymandering—entire careers spent with no accountability to the voters but non-stop support from lobbyists and deep-pocketed big shots—have made it this way.

Sadly, every time I visit the statehouse, my expectations for bad behavior are always met.

But no behavior has been worse than what just happened with the state teachers’ pension board—an outright coup over the control of a board that oversees $90B.

Specifically, after 1 a.m. two nights ago, the politicians from the nation’s most corrupt statehouse disenfranchised Ohio teachers and retirees from controlling the pension fund they built and on which they rely.

Instead, the politicians’ picks will now dominate the board, and three years of election results will be wiped out through this one sneak attack.

It’s a travesty as matter of democracy. Potentially lawless. And a case study of how gerrymandered politicians (and this spans way beyond Ohio) behave when monied interests demand something.

Here are the ugly details:

My May Statehouse Field Trip

Some of you may remember that in May, I drove to Columbus to watch what may have seemed like a very dry meeting.

I was there to observe a subcommittee of Ohio’s Retirement Study Council, where two presentations were made about the composition of pension boards around the country.

Serious presentations and thoughtful questions—looking specifically at “Teacher Retirement Boards.” You can even see the slide deck here.

Background: A Clash of Two Visions

I explained at the time that what looked like a ho-hum public meeting had major consequences and importance, because for years there’s been a struggle between two different visions among the board about how the $90B pension fund (called STRS) should be managed.

On one side are “reformers” who believe the fund should “switch to index funding;”  on the other, a faction that wants to stick with a model of “actively managing the funds,” which also comes with higher fees. “Reformers” also want “a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. The COLAs were suspended for more than 150,000 retired Ohio teachers for five years starting in 2017. They were reinstated, but there has been a suspension of increases, significant for retirees who need this money and are dealing with inflation.”

I don’t have a dog in the fight, but teachers and retirees do because: 1) their years of hard work and contributions built the pension fund to its $90B+; 2) they rely on the pension for their economic well-being; and 3) (until this week) they elect seven of the board’s 11 members (the other four are appointees).

A Winning Streak for the Reformers

Over the past several years, including this past May, elections were held for seats on this teachers pension board. The voters in these elections are either active teachers, or retirees. And for a number of elections in a row, the voters in these elections delivered decisive victories for the “reformer” candidates. In fact, the “reformers” have won so much, it’s sparked a sea change in the overall board, flipping the board majority itself.

That’s how democracy works, right?

But in America’s most corrupt state, things are never so straightforward.

Specifically, ever since the “reform” side started winning a few years ago, irregular things have happened right around election time (often after the votes are cast and before the results are announced) to thwart the outcome.

Two years ago, days before a “reformer” victory was announced, Governor DeWine unilaterally fired his own appointee to the board, who also had emerged as a “reformer.” DeWine’s last-minute maneuver denied the “reformers” the majority they would have earned when the election outcome was announced a day later. (Courts later held that DeWine's termination of that member—which he said was due to absenteeism, a lie that was quickly debunked—violated Ohio law, but he’s never been held accountable for this egregiously illegal act).

Then, the next year, days before the next election results were announced, Attorney General Dave Yost filed an action in court to remove two “reformers” from the board (based on allegations from a last-minute anonymous memo sent to DeWine, again, right around election time). Days later, it was announced that another “reformer” won that election—so even the court case and memo couldn’t stop the “reformers” from taking over the board majority.

And this past May, two more “reformer” candidates won elections.

Which of course came around the time I went to that statehouse hearing, as the Columbus politicians—having failed to undo election outcomes they’ve been defying for years—all of a sudden have an interest in simply upending the composition of this pension board. Why undo individual election results when you can just eliminate those elected seats outright?

And the politicians hadn’t been shy that that’s what they had in mind. Adam Bird, the chair of the subcommittee meeting I watched in May, had previously said: “I'm concerned that the STRS current composition of 7 teachers and 4 appointed investment experts appears to be imbalanced, which can lead to a perception of lack of fiduciary responsibility.” Another member proposed a reduction in teacher representatives last summer, shortly after the majority flipped, insulting retirees by saying: “We need retirees' input but people need to have logic and common sense.”

The Toledo Blade, which has watched this for years more closely than any other newspaper,  ripped these proposals, calling them out for what they clearly are:

“The General Assembly’s plan for elected members of the State Teachers Retirement System board appears to be, “If you can’t beat them, eliminate them.” The Ohio House Pension Committee has begun the process to change the composition of the STRS board with the goal of eliminating elected active and retired teachers from control of the fund.

It’s an undemocratic power play and totally unfair to teachers if they are the only pension singled out for legislation to restructure the board.”

Amen.

Just the Beginning…

So that’s the backdrop that inspired me to drive up to that May meeting.

But as I explained, it turned out to be a dry, civil meeting. The presentations laid out a wide variety of governance options used by different state pension systems, and the legislators asked general questions about those options. To the best of my recollection, lawmakers engaged in no discussion or conversation of specific proposals or suggestions for the make-up of the Ohio teachers’ pension board. Certainly no consensus or proposal or bill emerged, nor any schedule of when one might appear. And when that May meeting ended, the distinct impression left was that this was the beginning of a long conversation.

But to make sure I hadn’t remembered this incorrectly, I asked a state legislator who served on that retirement committee and was at that meeting if he remembered things as I did. I specifically asked Sean Brennan, a highly respected state rep. and retired high school teacher—who’s in the upper right of the photo above—if any specific proposals had ever come from this group.

His answer: “Never!”

So, while I left as concerned as I was when I arrived, it felt like this would be a drawn-out deliberation, with future opportunities for many to weigh in through the formal lawmaking process, including required committee hearings, the opportunity for proponents and opponents to testify, etc. In particular, I left confident that the 500,000 Ohioans who rely on this pension, many of whom have been voting for reform all this time, would have an opportunity to object to any effort to disenfranchise them.

The Sneak Attack

And then came this week, and this story….which someone sent to me first thing Wednesday morning.

At the last minute, stuffed into overnight deliberations (literally, 1 a.m.) of the the 6-person Ohio budget “conference committee” (3 Ohio house members and 3 Ohio Senate members), came a provision wholly unrelated to the budget, and which had appeared in neither the House nor the Senate budgets that passed earlier in the process. (The “conference committee” exists to reconcile difference in the two bodies’ approved budgets).

As the headline above suggests, this middle-of-the-night amendment involved the makeup of the teacher pension fund’s board. And with no notice or hearings or committee deliberations or feedback from anybody, the proposal executed a takeover of the pension’s board by politicians’ appointees while eliminating the retirees/teachers collective control of their own pension.

Specifically, the board has been made up of 7 elected members (5 elected by current teachers, 2 by retirees) and 4 political appointees. This new provision inverted that makeup, to instead comprise 8 political appointees and just 3 elected members (and only one seat elected by retirees). Four of the current elected members will simply be eliminated when their terms expire, replaced by the politicians’ appointees. And the result of three years of retiree/teacher elections…nullified.

Bird, the guy who chaired the committee meeting I observed, who left the impression that the conversation was just beginning, took credit for getting this change snuck into a budget process in which it had never previously been discussed.

And he did so claiming that his committee, "[t]he Ohio Retirement Study Council[,] has a duty to inform and advise the state legislature, and we have done that regarding our view of the STRS Board composition."

But the truth is, I watched their meeting myself, and they did nothing of the sort!

Still, the sneak amendment passed out of that 6-person conference committee (around 1:30 a.m.), immediately was sent to the the Ohio Senate and Ohio House, where within hours—again with no opportunity to hear from anyone—the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of teachers and retirees passed on a party-line vote.

Truly a breathtaking coup.

Just as the Toledo Blade predicted: “an undemocratic power play”—both in its substance, and in its execution.

Back to Representative Brennan, the retired teacher who’s seen this all up close:

“The move to strip directly elected teacher and retiree representation from the STRS Board is deeply troubling—both in its substance and the way it was pushed forward. This structural overhaul was introduced without meaningful transparency, without stakeholder input, and without the careful vetting a change of this magnitude demands….Rather than strengthening the system, this proposal diminishes the voice of working educators and retirees—those who pay into and rely on STRS every day. Reducing the number of elected contributing and retired members and stacking the board with political appointees not only silences the voices of frontline educators, but risks turning this vital system into a tool for partisan control….

Any change to the STRS Board structure should be developed in the open, with robust public dialogue and participation from the people most affected. This is not reform—it’s a power grab.”

A Legal Wrinkle

After years of demanding and achieving change, retirees of all viewpoints are devastated. Their voices and votes eviscerated in this overnight sneak attack.

One final hope is that Governor DeWine can line item veto this amendment of the budget. That would clearly be the right thing to do. But given that he started the first domino of this mess with his illegal termination of a “reform” member a few years ago, that seems unlikely.

But there is perhaps one other opportunity to stop this.

I mentioned above that the “conference committee” process exists to reconcile differences between the Senate budget and the House budget. This has always meant that the only items to be raised and passed by the conference committee must be drawn from either the Senate or House budget.

But in this case, neither body’s budget included any provision on the makeup of the teachers’ pension board. So on this issue, there was nothing to reconcile. This was simply a blatant and illegitimate shoe-horning of a dramatic policy change into that conference committee process to avoid hearings, deliberation and criticism if this had advanced as a separate bill.

But this also means that this change did not go through the required legislative process of three hearings, proponent and opponent testimony, committee votes, and then full votes in both chambers.

None of that happened.

This is not only an undemocratic law. It’s a lawless law.

And if DeWine doesn’t veto it, someone should challenge the highly irregular and inappropriate way in which it was enacted.

Reminder: Ohio Statehouse Leads the Nation in Corruption

More broadly, this travesty is a blaring reminder of the overall, corrupt culture of Ohio politics at the moment.

Pay to play dominates the place. And pay to play often involves appointments to key government bodies and boards. For example, the First Energy scandal was kick-started by the Governor handing over control of the Public Utilizes Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to private industry and First Energy, only months after First Energy boosted the Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s campaign efforts with millions in dark money.

And even as that scandal has played out for years—and is still playing out—no ethics reforms or other changes have ever been made.

And that is the context we should never forget as we weigh every decision about power in Ohio.

So when we see Ohio’s politicians breaking rules to rush through dramatic changes in early morning hours, to give themselves more appointments over a board that controls $90B, we should be on high alert.

Just as handing more pension power to politicians who’ve never shown an ounce of remorse for prior (and recent) pay-to-play scandals is about as bad as an idea could get.

Bottom line: teachers and retirees earned their voice in the governance of their own pension fund. They built it, they rely on it, and they have every right to demand change to how things are managed.

And they certainly have a right to have checks and balances to protect them against an Ohio political system with a long and ongoing track record of corruption.

As if we needed any more proof, the way this coup was pulled off is exactly why the politicians can not be trusted to control their pension.

Read this article online here.