CORE needs you

May 7, 2006

Since May, 2003, one of our greatest challenges has been, and still is, to "educate educators," both active and retired, about what is really going on at STRS, who is really pulling the strings and why OEA in particular is able to use their big money and political muscle in a way the rest of us cannot begin to compete with, and which they can and do use to further their own ends.

OEA continues to sweep past and present history under the rug while professing "more light and less noise." They do shed plenty of light on what they want their dues-paying members to know and make absolutely NO noise about the rest of what they do. OEA members are never given a complete picture of what goes on behind the closed doors of the OEA building. For OEA members, there IS no Sunshine Law, only partial accounting, innuendoes and half-truths. The OEA Way.

CORE is a much smaller, newer group, purely grassroots, with no money backing except, for the most part, what we can come up with out of our own pockets, largely the pockets of retirees who have far less change to spare than the highly paid execs at OEA, or even today's active teachers. We do not want to see history repeat itself at STRS, with the rape and pillage of educators' funds by a Board once dominated by the largest teachers union in the state, and which continues to employ tactics to regain that control to further their own agenda.

CORE needs you to be enlightened and active in spreading the truth about your retirement system and those involved in running it. Everyone has a right to know what is really going on so they can have a hand in making sure that, no matter what, the dictates of ORC 3307.15 are followed to the letter. Only you can prevent past crimes from happening again.

Kathie Bracy

kbb47@aol.com