Bob Buerkle: Our STRS Board members chose to punish us, forcing us to pay for their investment mistakes as well as the cost of maintaining the 2.2% formula for future teachers

From Bob Buerkle

August 2, 2022

This part of her letter [above] says it all: "At the very least, teachers should have been grandfathered into the retirement they were told they would receive when they started". 

New York, Illinois and a number of other states have state constitutional protections for their teachers that the Ohio Constitution does not provide for us. That being the case does not mean that past STRS Board members could not have protected their teachers by grandfathering them, then instructing their actuaries to come up with alternatives for teachers hired in the future. 

Instead, our Board Members chose to punish us, forcing us to pay for their investment mistakes as well as the cost of maintaining the 2.2% formula for future teachers. 

Don't get me wrong. I believe that future teachers need a 2.2% formula, but the legislature and Ohio taxpayers should fund the cost, not current teachers and retirees!