A post submitted to the STRS FB site but was censored

Kathie Bracy, October 14, 2018
I posted the below item on the STRS Facebook page yesterday. I couldn't find it today, so I posted it again tonight. Just in case it disappears again, here it is, in full (if it disappears again, I'll put it on my blog): KBB

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Interesting FB site. Nice to know how many centenarian members there are in STRS, but how does that help us? The STRS speaker who addresses my county retired teachers organization has thrown out those numbers to us more than once. Nice. We get it. But when will she start telling us what STRS is doing to restore our COLA (the elephant in the room), which should never have been cut in the first place? When will she tell us why it's OK for STRS employees to continue getting regular raises (their COLA) while we get none, and why the investment department (whose members also get those nice raises) is so huge and why those people continue to receive humongous bonuses when STRS beneficiaries keep losing income? Do they really need it more than retirees who have much smaller incomes? Why doesn't she tell us why STRS employees do not pay into the STRS retirement system? Gee, this room is getting FULL of elephants! 

A word here for anyone who may be calling retirees "COLA complainers" (shades of the late Joe Endry, one of the six STRS Board members who were convicted of ethics violations in Franklin County Municipal Court; he called us "malcontent retirees" for protesting the huge increase in healthcare costs for many members). Those who would call us COLA complainers need to review the history of the STRS Board and rethink this issue before it's too late. You don't want to learn some lessons the hard way.