Honest communication is important.

Dean Dennis addressed the STRS Ohio Retirement Board on March 19, 2026.

I want to start by addressing Tuesday’s Investment Committee Seminar. On the agenda were two Ohio Retirement Study Council members, invited by the Investment Committee Chair, who have captured our members' attention. Both have expressed openness to changing the makeup of our STRS Board to a majority of political appointees. 

I watched and listened with great interest because having a majority of elected board STRS members as our fiduciaries fosters healthy discussions that need to be had with the legislative body. It is also healthy because it is OUR pension plan, which we funded with decades of significant contributions for OUR retirement. If Ohio Legislators truly want to attract the best teachers, a healthy, well-thought-out pension system is essential. Legislators should never be afraid of the democratic process unless they have an agenda that requires circumventing it. 

I appreciated hearing that the two ORSC members want to protect the Defined Benefit Plan. I also appreciated the format that allowed a question-and-answer exchange between Board members and the two legislators. I think it would be beneficial to explore that kind of format in the future.

Honest communication is important. 

However, in one exchange, I believe I heard one of the ORSC members state that Ed Choice vouchers don’t affect our pension system. I respectfully disagree.

As students move outside our public school system, we lose teachers; when we lose teachers, we lose revenue from Employee and Employer Contributions. This, in turn, hurts paying down the unfunded liability, which, of course, impacts member retirement benefits.

The unfunded liability affects teachers in both the Defined Benefit Plan and the Defined Contribution Plan, where in the DC plan, members lose about 4% of the Employer's Contribution, which is diverted to address the unfunded liability. 

Circling back to Ed Choice vouchers, it seems to me that if billions of dollars of public monies are allowed to keep going to private and religious schools, then at least 4% of each non-public-school teacher's salary should be assessed and diverted back to the STRS pension system. This is something our Board and STRS-paid consultants should study and pursue after our STRS auditors complete the calculations to determine what the Ed Choice vouchers are costing our pension.

Honest communication is important.

Thank you.