Dean Dennis, Founder of the STRS Ohio Watchdogs, addressed the STRS Ohio Board during Public Participation on March 19, 2025.
Regarding the Employer Contribution increase, ORTA publicly supports STRS’s efforts to increase it. We have already posted on our website as to why an increase is needed. We have also sent our position to the ORSC and are seeking a meeting.
Today, I’m going to give my opinion regarding some elephant-in-the-room topics. The first is Employer Contribution. While it's needed, a 4% Employer Contribution increase will yield roughly only one-half billion of the 4 billion required to resolve our 4-billion-dollar shortfall. STRS must still find new ways to generate more revenue, and board members must be open to new ideas.
The second is the press trying to frame the dysfunction at STRS on the Board. Let’s be clear. The perceived chaos was orchestrated. After the Spring 2023 elections, someone convinced the Governor to bounce Wade Steen off the board on false pretenses. After the Spring 2024 elections, someone from the staff delivered an anonymous 14-page letter to the Governor and AG’s office. Board members are not the ones causing the chaos. An interesting read is posted on the ORTA website. Go to our BLOG tab, click page 2, and open Wade Steen: Recent Court Documents; read everything, including the emails. You’ll find that in July 2020, STRS drafted a business plan proposal for QED. QED rejected this due to transparency issues.
The third is the threat that “Ohio lawmakers may remove teacher’s voting powers as chaos continues.” This is occasionally batted around, and some press members are trying to give it legs. I have met with the ORSC Chair, Adam Bird, a few times. His position is to elect strong Board members and have them fix your transparency problems. If the legislators were to take over the Board, they would own the shortfall and have no one to blame.
The fourth is the AG. The AG must conclude that if he wants a healthy pension system, the problem isn’t the Board members. Board members shouldn’t have to look over their shoulders every time they vote, wondering if their vote will meet with the AG's or some politician's approval. Keep thinking about the members and stay strong.