Trina Kay Prufer's suggestion to STRS: Try a dose of DEDICATION to your real mission… which is making OUR retirements financially secure, so we can focus on educating Ohio’s children.

From Trina Kay Prufer

November 2, 2023

DEDICATION

As teachers, we did what was HARD, not what was EASY. Many of us worked in substandard buildings, had overcrowded classrooms and were not well compensated given the level of training and DEDICATION required. 

Our expectation is that STRS work as hard for us as we did for the children of Ohio. The problem is they don‘t. They took the easy way out…  and fixed THEIR problem of pension mismanagement by HARMING us. They see it as a zero sum game. They win, we lose.  We … always…. lose. 

Other states don‘t eat their own. Just look at states that make teacher pensions work… Missouri, Nevada, New York and others. Their secret sauce…. it’s in the will of their legislatures, the strength and clarity of their laws (such as using the CPI or other metric in the cola adjustment), fidelity of teacher unions to their membership and in the culture of the retirement systems, all of which align in valuing the welfare of teachers.  

It won’t be easy…. But STRS needs to get the message… work for us, not for yourselves. Stop stuffing your own pockets. Go back and read the historic documents as to the original purpose of the organization. Try a dose of DEDICATION to your real mission… which is making OUR retirements financially secure, so we can focus on educating Ohio’s children.