The Ohio Education Association, the Ohio Federation of Teachers and the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors filed a complaint this week in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas challenging the Ohio General Assembly’s changes to the board of the State Teachers Retirement System.
As part of a new legislative budget, the number of educator members on the 11-member STRS board will be reduced to three from seven by 2028, while the number of government-appointed members will increase to eight from three.
The new board makeup will be effective in October, when four members appointed by the Ohio government will join the board, increasing the number of board seats to 15. The number of educator board members would eventually be reduced by four, reducing the number of board seats back down to 11.
Critics of the change say that educators are losing representation on the board of their own pension fund, which manages $100.6 billion and provides retirement benefits for more than 540,000 beneficiaries.
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“This policy is the latest in a long line of attacks against educators in Ohio,” said Glenetta Krause, a member of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the complaint’s lead plaintiff, in a statement. “Statehouse politicians have underfunded our public schools, rolled back our collective bargaining rights, fully eliminated Ohio’s elected State Board of Education, and told us what we can and can’t teach. Now they’re taking away our representation on our own retirement board. This lawsuit is about restoring fairness and protecting our fundamental right to have a say in how our retirement is managed.”
In recent years, the teachers’ pension fund has experienced backlash from some members who favor the restoration of cost-of-living adjustments and a switch to index-based investing. The board of STRS remains controlled by a faction of reformers who want to see these changes to the fund.
The “reformers” have been at odds with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who previously called for investigations into the board over allegations that some members were conspiring to steer management of billions of its assets to an outside entity.
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Ohio Legislators Reshape Teachers’ Pension Board Structure
Ohio STRS’ 1.5% COLA ‘Doesn’t Go Far Enough,’ Says Retirement Group
Ohio Attorney General Calls for Removal of Two Teachers’ Pension Board Members
Tags: Litigation, STRS Ohio
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