Bob Buerkle patiently explains our situation to Representative Romanchuk, but will he "get it"? What do you think?

Bob Buerkle's message to Representative Mark Romanchuk

March 18, 2026

From Bob: I just sent the following email to Rep. Mark Romanchuk regarding his comment to the STRS Board yesterday about how much better a STRS pension was than a pension from Social Security. NOT!

To Rep. Mark Romanchuk,

I watched the STRS Board meeting yesterday and heard your comments. I was not surprised, but I was disappointed, when I heard you say that our STRS pension was better than Social Security. As you should know, our teachers contribute more than 2.2 times the amount that Social Security workers have to pay, 14% versus 6.2%. Because of this our teachers usually have a larger beginning pension, but not always. We have some rural districts which pay their teachers substantially lower salaries than the big city districts pay. For these teachers, their beginning pensions might be close to the same as the average Social Security benefit. The big difference once retired, is that Social Security pays their retirees a compounded COLA every year, while the 155,000 STRS retirees do not know if they will ever receive another simple COLA!

Can I explain to you, another huge difference between an STRS Pension and one from Social Security? My wife did a wonderful job raising our children as a stay-at-home-mom. Therefore, due to our family choices, she then did not qualify for a pension of her own. In order to protect her if I passed away I had to take a substantial cut in my STRS pension. Not so with Social Security and I know, since I also receive a Soc. Sec. pension based upon the 40 years I worked at summer jobs. However, unlike the cut I took to my STRS pension, my wife qualified for her own Soc. Sec. benefit based on my work, at 50% of the amount that I make, and now she also receives a compounded Soc. Sec. COLA each year.

In a conversation with Jeff Bernard from ORSC a few months ago, at another STRS Board meeting, he said the same thing that you did, that "an STRS pension was better, much better, than a Soc. Sec. pension." So, I decided do a little research and compare the two retirement plans over the last 10-year period. I then delivered my information in a speech at the February 18, 2026 STRS Board meeting. I have attached a pdf of my speech for you to read and hopefully share with your legislative colleagues. As you can see, even on a relatively small pension, our retirees have fallen behind a similar Soc. Sec. pension by about $12,000 per year, which also means that our retirees have lost over 25% of their purchasing power in only a decade.

What will happen to us over the next 10 to 20 years in retirement?

Respectfully,

Bob Buerkle

Cincinnati Retiree