Trina Kay Prufer: A retirement system should not be judged by its performance on a bar graph, but on the quality of the lives of its retirees. Using this standard, how is STRS doing?

From Trina Kay Prufer 

October 20, 2023

The Tyranny of the Bar Graph

I watched some, but not all of the proceedings yesterday. Missing from the presentations were discussions on the long-term effects of STRS policies on retirees, which a decade ago sacrificed retirees’ financial security to the altar of ” the unfunded liability”. What happens to retirees in the future is apparently of no serious concern. We are just the unfortunate casualties of the bar graph, which projects how well STRS will be funded in ten years.

The reality is that there are more than 500K of us… and no other teacher retirement system in the nation has betrayed and harmed its constituency to this degree.

Because we are left out of the discussion, there is no urgency in finding solutions. Neville, and STRS have been defining the cola as an “enhancement”. THAT is exactly problem. Instead of facing the issue, its name is changed. Now that was simple… all done, no problem anymore. How ungrateful can teachers be with the 1% gift we are bestowing on them?

Neville is the face of STRS. Unfortunately his mindset is denial. He spouts nonsense … the cola was never guaranteed, STRS is a premier institution and membership is satisfied with the performance of STRS. Aside from his ever present manipulations (which almost always disadvantage membership in some way) his solution is fluff… and LOTS of it.

STRS is a failure, not because it was 49% underfunded a decade ago. It is a failure because there is no moral core to the institution itself. There are no long-term solutions other than harming teachers. It is not fighting FOR us… it is fighting FOR US to take the financial hit of past institutional mistakes, with a dose of profiteering on the side. That’s exactly what the 2012 ”reform” legislation was designed to do. 

A retirement system should not be judged by its performance on a bar graph, but on the quality of the lives of its retirees. Using this standard, how is STRS doing?