Call to Action: Letter Writing Campaign

The passage of Ohio's budget bill on July 1, 2025 stripped the STRS Ohio board of its majority of democratically elected teachers and replaced them with political appointees. This move takes away teachers’ voices in the management of our pension.

Write to your state lawmakers today to voice your opposition to this change. Tell them that you want to have a meaningful voice in the direction of your pension system. Tell them that you resent this attack on your voice as an educator in Ohio and demand that they take immediate steps to reverse this action. - OFT, OCAAUP, OEA

Send a letter or postcard to your Ohio Representative and another to your Ohio Senator. And while you're at it, send one to Governor DeWine.

• Get together with your colleagues, friends, and family members, to send letters and postcards.

• Active teachers can send letters during lunch in the staff dining room and during staff meetings.

• Retired teachers can send letters during ORTA chapter meetings.

Why letters and postcards? 

While your lawmaker has your letter or postcard in their hand, you have their full attention. It becomes a visual and tactile memory. A growing pile of letters and postcards on a desk makes a strong and lasting impression.

Click here to find your Ohio Representative and Senator and their mailing addresses.

Do you live outside of Ohio?  Send you postcards and letters to: 

• Governor Mike DeWine

Riffe Center, 30th Floor, 77 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43215

• Representative Matt Huffman, Speaker of the House of Representatives 

77 South High Street, 14th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215

• Senator Rob McColley, President of the Senate

     1 Capitol Square, Second Floor, 201, Columbus, Ohio 43215

Here is a message that has been prepared for us by the Ohio Conference American Association of University Professors (ACAAUP), the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT), and the Ohio Education Association (OEA).

Write your own message or feel free to use all, or parts, of this message. The last two sentences would fit well on a postcard.

As an educator, I am extremely upset by the provision passed in the state budget that radically changes the composition of the STRS Board. Currently, active and retired teachers elect the majority of the Board. The majority of the Board should be representative of Ohio’s active and retired teachers…it is our money after all. The benefits provided through our pension system represent the financial security in retirement for hundreds of thousands of Ohioans.

The legislature has stripped the majority of the Board away from educators and would replace four elected members with political appointees. This is unacceptable. Worse yet, this was slipped in at the eleventh-hour during conference committee with no debate, hearings, or opportunity for public comment. 

Of Ohio’s five public retirement systems, only STRS was targeted and only the voice of educators was stripped away in this manner. Why? STRS investments are performing well, and the system is well within the financial metrics established under law.

I am asking you to take immediate action to reverse the takeover of STRS with the appointment of four political appointees and removal of elected members of the Board.

Stand up for the voice of active and retired teachers in the state.

Thank you for your participation in this important action!