Dean Dennis (Columbus Dispatch 4/28/23): "What STRS doesn’t admit is the truth: They have no real plan to restore benefit cuts and to provide a COLA for retirees,"
Ohio teachers pension fund leaders have no real plan only propaganda: Retiree leader
Columbus Dispatch
April 28, 2023
"What STRS doesn’t admit is the truth: They have no real plan to restore benefit cuts and to provide a COLA for retirees," Dean Dennis
Dean Dennis
Guest columnist
The recent article “Ohio teacher pensions: Control of the board, $95B at stake in election” is certainly correct in making the statement that the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio board election — which is now taking place — is a pivotal moment for the State Teachers Retirement System.
However, the issues in this election centered around an “unproven investment strategy” are incorrect. If anything, the issues center around the current STRS investment strategies, which have failed to deliver the resources needed to keep the promises made to Ohio’s teachers.
Recently, investment expert Richard Ennis, who was hired by Ohio to help clean up the mess at the Bureau of Workers Compensation in the aftermath of “Coingate," wrote a Toledo Blade essay essay that explained how STRS had “underperformed a passively investable benchmark by 1.62 percentage points per year for ... 13 years...” and “much of the underperformance could be attribute to unrecouped expenses incurred by STRS.”
Active teachers are working longer and paying more, but will receive less when they retire. 
A large part of what they will not receive is their guaranteed cost-of-living adjustment, which the STRS Board eliminated. How will active teachers fare over time, since they will not receive Social Security in retirement and will also not have a COLA?
Those who are already retired did so with the promise that they would receive a COLA; however, after making that irrevocable decision, they have found over the last decade that the STRS Board reneged on its promise. Retirement for active teachers and for those already retired without a COLA is a formula for impoverishment.
In Ohio, a non-Social Security state, asking active teachers to work longer, pay more, receive less, and retire without a COLA is asking them to take a vow of poverty in their golden years.
This hurts all Ohioans. It will also surely drive the best and the brightest teachers, who are among the most educated individuals in Ohio, to look for work elsewhere or to choose a different profession. That is what is truly at stake in this election.
Dean Dennis is a retired Cincinnati Public Schools teacher and administrator. He is president-elect of the Ohio Retired Teachers Association.
CORRECTION: The Columbus Dispatch was incorrect in stating that Dean Dennis is a retired Cincinnati Public Schools administrator. Dean was a lead teacher, not an adminstrator.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 1:48 PM
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