Educators say the new state law undermines their voice on retirement decisions.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Education Association (OEA), Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) and Ohio Conference of the American Assocation of University Professors is suing the state over a new law that would change the makeup of the board overseeing the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), calling it illegal.
The STRS manages retirement benefits and investment strategies for more than 150,000 teachers across Ohio. Under the most recent state budget, the Ohio Legislature approved a change that would shift control of the STRS board, giving political appointees a majority.
Currently, the 11-member board is composed of seven teacher-elected representatives and four political appointees. Under the new law, the balance would shift to eight political appointees and just three teachers.
The OEA argues that this change removes the voices of educators from decisions that directly impact their retirement futures.
“It seems that when public education is under attack, this is just another attack to silence the voice of educators,” said Jeff Wensing, president of the OEA. “Are you saying that educators aren’t able to make decisions?”
Wensing said the system is working well as it stands and that the current board has been effective in making decisions for both active and retired teachers.
Wensing added that the STRS board has made “sound decisions” for educators.
“I think the members of the STRS board — current STRS board — they’ve been making sound decisions,” he said. “They’ve been making benefit enhancements for both retired teachers and active teachers.”
Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said many of her members were outraged by the legislature’s decision.
“Our members worked hard to elect people to serve on that board who they trusted with their retirement futures, and it just felt like another slap in the face to them,” Cropper said.
The legislature, however, defends the change. In a statement, Rep. Adam Bird said: “We believe the change was needed to provide stable governance to protect the pensions for hardworking teachers, current retirees, and future retirees.”
The union’s lawsuit aims to stop the board restructuring before it takes effect in October.
“I think that what happened is a dangerous precedent — that if the legislature doesn’t like decisions that elected board members are making, that they’ll just step in and change the composition of the board,” Cropper said.
The final decision will be up to the courts. A judge could halt the board changes if the court sides with the teachers.