Robin Rayfield: Telling it like it is

December 20, 2021

Dr. Robin Rayfield is an STRS retiree, having retired as a public educator in Ohio in December 2011. Robin spent over 30 years serving Ohio’s children and adults in several roles: 

As a classroom teacher for 9 years Bellefontaine City and PDY Local

As a building administrator for 9 years PDY Local

As a district superintendent for 8 years Swanton Local and PDY Local

As a public university professor for 15 years U Toledo, Ohio U, and U Findlay

Robin is married to Stephanie (34 years) and has three children (Ryan 32, Reid 30, Ross 24)

Robin is currently the Executive Director of the Ohio Retired Teachers’ Association, a position he has held since August of 2017.

From Robin: 

My journey with advocacy for STRS retirees began when I was hired to be executive director at ORTA. I was unfamiliar with the problems that plague STRS. As I listened to everyone (STRS staff and people that were upset with STRS) I began to familiarize myself with ‘facts.’ Bob Buerkle and Dean Dennis were instrumental in my understanding of what is taking place at STRS and looking at things from a perspective that does not match the STRS perspective. Over the last four plus years I have learned a great deal from many sources, including experts on pensions such as Ted Siedle, Chris Tobe, Bob Stein, and others.

I have learned many things on this journey, however, the most basic lessons learned include:

·         STRS is NOT TRANSPARENT – This organization only provides information that is supportive of the STRS staff and their continued employment

·         STRS hires consultants that support STRS staff. The higher the contract STRS pays the consultants, the higher the praise the consultants have for the staff

·         STRS has been paying themselves bonuses every year without regard to any external benchmark. STRS claims to ‘add $100 million in value’ to STRS. Looking at the returns and expenditures through a lens that is not skewed towards STRS; STRS ‘costs’ the pension system $400 million. Why the discrepancy? See point one. STRS refuses to share information about costs, fees, expenses, and the value of its investments with the investors (active and retired STRS members)

As the Auditor of State and the Ohio Securities Commission conduct their investigations into potential fraud at STRS, the lack of transparency will be corrected. Know this… ORTA will continue to advocate for reforms at STRS. Our goal is to fix a broke system that works well for the employees and their highly paid consultants and friends on Wall St. but works against the people that put the money into the system.