From ORTA Newsletter

Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association

June 2024

Message from ORTA's Executive Director, Dr. Robin Rayfield, on the work that lies ahead of ORTA, regarding STRS

Greetings ORTA Faithful,

The STRS board is scheduled to meet on June 20 this month. As usual ORTA will have a strong presence at the meeting voicing our advocacy for all STRS members. I have been in communication with several leaders of the STRS Members Only and STRS Ohio Watchdogs Facebook groups over the last several weeks. As most everyone knows, the folks at STRS are not happy that most of the board members at the present time are in favor of reforming STRS.

This will be a long and difficult battle as the current staff at STRS are not in favor of reform efforts. When you think of the current efforts to reform our pension system, it is no surprise that the leadership of STRS are not in favor of changes. With the salaries of the leadership far exceeding the ‘going rate’ for compensation of pension employees across the country, reform can only mean one thing…

Reductions in salary and in the number of people employed. Remember, every time STRS went through 'reform' the result was:

•  Reductions of benefits to retirees

•  Increases in contributions from active STRS members

•  Increases in the number of years of service required to receive benefits

•  Elimination of any inflation protection for retirees

•  Steady, increases in employee salaries and bonuses

•  Reduction in transparency, and growth of alternative investments enabling employees and Wall St. investors to grab more in fees and payments

Now that the cows have given all the milk that they have, the people getting rich off our pension system resist changes to the system that works so well for everyone but the people that pay into the system.

So where does this leave the retirees and active educators? It leaves us with the significant task of forcing reforms to our system. Please remember that it took decades of mismanagement and corruption to get where we are. It will take years (not decades) to set things right. The reform board will make necessary changes; however, these changes will take time to have the necessary impact to make a significant impact. Our struggle is against a leadership team at STRS that will not accept any change without a fight.

The governor, the A.G., and the appointed members of the STRS board want so desperately to hold on to control of the $90+ billion in our pension system. Wall St. kicks back so much money to politicians in Ohio that depend on Wall St. contributions. We are in a great position to force reforms, but each change will be a battle.

What changes does ORTA want to see in the STRS pension program?

A commitment to transparency. Sharing all information concerning our pension program including the fees and costs associated with our alternative investments. With nearly $20 billion invested in alternative investments our board members need to have access to these documents.

Moving our investments from high cost, active management to low- cost passive management (index-based portfolios). This will provide greater returns to the pension system.

Lowering the costs associated with the pension system. Currently, our employees earn significantly higher salaries and bonuses than similar pension employees across the country. Selling off the real estate portfolio and closing the four satellite offices around the country along with reduction of the costs associated with the STRS building. Either sell the building or rent out a large portion of the building on Broad St.

Changing the culture at STRS from prioritizing the staff at STRS to prioritizing the membership of STRS. Currently, the policies at STRS emphasize the employees over the people that paid in to the system or are currently paying in to the system.

Working to bring more money into the system. Convincing the state legislature to increase the employer contributions, or seeking additional revenues from the state to support educators is essential to having a quality retirement system for educators. Having the lowest level of support for educators in the country is not helping. Nor is diverting over a billion dollars from public education to private, for- profit education helping the current situation.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. ORTA will continue to advocate STRS members. If the political powers currently in charge choose to fight against teachers, they run the risk of losing teacher support at the ballot box.