Trina Prufer on STRS: "... a public retirement system that puts its membership into financial peril, and does not fully disclose the inadequacy of the benefit, is a malevolent institution.

From Trina Prufer

August 11, 2025 

Pension Adequacy and Unjust Enrichment 

Every day I ponder the plight of STRS members and know in my heart that none of this is fair or normal for a public retirement system. The human costs of 2012 “pension reform” are far beyond what other systems have done to maintain sustainability. 

We know that STRS is an outlier because it takes more from members than it gives back. In effect, it has a license to steal. But what are the moral, ethical and legal arguments?  

When viewed from the vantage point of a typical classroom teacher, the pension benefit is not ADEQUATE to sustain life in old age. Pension adequacy (70% replacement) is the gold standard of public pensions. If the lifespan of a typical teacher is 28 years in retirement, the defined-benefit diminishes into the 30-40% (or lower) replacement range. Social Security alone is designed to replace about 40% throughout the lifespan and has an automatic COLA tied to inflation. Without inflation protection, the STRS defined benefit is a humanitarian disaster engineered by the State of Ohio. How does that serve the needs of the public, which was the rational for “pension reform” in the first place? 

By taking more from educators than the defined benefit is worth, has STRS drifted into the realm of “unjust enrichment”?   In other words, what gives the STATE the authority to extract wealth from teachers just for the privilege of becoming a teacher? 

 If STRS offers no financial benefit to members over Social Security and investing a similar amount in a 401 K, what is its purpose? We need to request that a modeling study be done to answer this very question. Furthermore, a public retirement system that puts its membership into financial peril, and does not fully disclose the inadequacy of the benefit, is a malevolent institution. Is the State of Ohio unjustly enriching itself? Perhaps that is an issue the courts need to decide.