Trina Prufer: What has happened here should be a wake-up call to all other public pension stakeholders in the nation.

Another Manufactured Crisis… Another Political Dirty Trick 

By Trina Prufer

June 28, 2025

There is something oddly familiar about this latest move by legislators to gain control of the STRS fund. It follows the same pattern as the passage of 2012 ”reform” legislation, which removed the state’s obligation to provide a 3% annual automatic COLA to pre-2012 retirees. Both pieces of legislation (current budget legislation and SB 342) violated the ORC and took away vital teachers’ rights by manufacturing crises to achieve political ends. 

If we go back in time to 2012, removing the automatic COLA from the benefit was done in the name of “sustaining” the ability of STRS to pay future benefits. Between 2002 and 2012, the 3% annual automatic COLA had been guaranteed by contract. In order to break the contract, the legislature used its POLICE POWERS to override the ORC, all in the name of acting in the best interest of the public. Additionally, at the time, articles were being published in the media that were anti-teacher. 

In retrospect, although the amount of the unfunded liability was certainly large, there were many solutions other than breaking the retirement contract. As Ohio is a non-Social Security state, the most obvious and fair solutions would have been increasing the employer contribution (which was in the ORC) and moving to a tiered benefit. 

Although there was never a need to put retirees in financial peril, no one would ever know this by reading the 2012 legislation. The “crisis” manufactured by the legislature was the falsehood that there were NO OTHER SOLUTIONS other than removing the COLA from the benefit; otherwise, it was claimed, STRS would essentially GO BANKRUPT, and be unable to pay future benefits. The use of the legislature’s police powers to negate the retirement contract was a dirty trick and not appropriate for a budgetary shortfall.  

Moving on to the current situation in which the Ohio Legislature just voted to remove the teacher majority on the STRS board, we see a similar political dirty trick at play. The ORC specifies that the board majority should be in the hands of stakeholders. In the state’s desire to change this, another crisis was manufactured resulting in politicians taking control of the board. This time it was the “boogey man” of a “hostile takeover” by special interests (as was claimed in an “anonymous” memo) that served as the rationale. 

The problem in this story line was that is was a complete fabrication. As is quite obvious, board members are ELECTED by stakeholders in free and fair elections. There was never a connection made between the “scary” special interest, hostile takeover folks, and the candidates running for the board. The “anonymous“ memo was written by STRS attorneys to facilitate the state taking control of the billions in the fund. 

As in the case of passing the 2012 reform bill, once again the media was utilized in presenting a false picture to the public. What happened next is what we have all seen play out. By using a controversial tactic (a dirty trick), the Ohio Legislature attached a rider to the current budget bill in the dead of night. Although it had nothing to do with the budget, it changed the law, taking the majority control away from educators, putting its billions in the hands of politicians to do as they see fit. 

The financial harm inflicted on Ohio’s teachers has been accomplished through deception and allegations of false crises. In reality, STRS is not a public teacher retirement system at all, as it does not represent the interests of teachers, and now only exists to benefit those in control at the state level. What has happened here should be a wake-up call to all other public pension stakeholders in the nation.