From Trina Prufer
June 15, 2025
A Thought Experiment
I was at the meeting last week when the board voted to continue the bonus program. Like all of us on this site, I was frustrated, saddened and unhappy with this outcome. The disappointment in the room was palpable. Never-the-less, I understand why the vote turned out this way and applaud how our reform board members handled the situation. Essentially, this is a David and Goliath conflict for control of billions of dollars with the financial lives of 500K educators at risk. They took the path that allows us to fight on for another day.
So let’s do a thought experiment by envisioning a hypothetical do over. What would have happened if our reform board members had voted to end the bonus program? The backlash against teachers would have been swift, extreme and perhaps permanently crippled our ability to have any voice in how STRS is run. The State holds all the cards. Because STRS is governed by statutes that can be changed by the legislature, there are no laws protecting the defined-benefit and in the governance of STRS.
The implied threats against reform board members hovered like an imaginary guillotine set up in the center of the room. The risk was that reform board members would be sued by the AG‘s office on the trumped up charge of dereliction of fiduciary duty and the ORSC would recommend that educators be removed from the board on the grounds of preventing a “hostile takeover”. We have already seen this movie.
STRS operates like no other public retirement system in the nation. Its funding model is designed to financially harm members as the state’s contribution rates will never fully fund the benefit. IMO, Ohio’s pension laws are unconstitutional as they allow for the unlawful seizure of members’ assets. Our issues are massive and reform board members are doing the very best they can under extraordinary conditions. They deserve our support and understanding of the constraints they work under. They fight for us every single day. Since they have been in the majority, we have attained small but significant gains. This will be a very, very long fight.