Advocates for major reform at Ohio State Teachers gain board majority after court ruling
An Ohio Court of Appeals has restored an ousted Ohio State Teachers’ Retirement System trustee to its board, tilting the majority to...
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ORTA established the Pension Defense Fund to ensure it has the legal and professional resources necessary to continue its fight for pro-teacher policies and the reinstatement of pro-reform STRS board member Wade Steen.
In a huge victory for teachers this week, an Ohio court made a preliminary finding that pro-teacher board member Wade Steen should be reinstated to the STRS board. The magistrate determined Mr. Steen was wrongfully removed by the Governor last year. However, this victory was short lived because it appears the Governor has a hidden motive. Despite the Tenth District Court of Appeals findings, the Governor's office decided to brazenly interfere with the court.
After the Tenth District’s Courts finding, Brent Bishop resigned from the seat from which he was wrongfully appointed. Ignoring the court’s findings, the Governor boldly decided to usurp the power of the courts and the will of the people and wrongfully appoint yet another person, Brian Perera. ORTA will not stand by and watch one man’s hidden agenda stand in the way of bringing transparency and accountability to our pension system.
STRS is broken. Help us fight back by supporting board members like Wade Steen who are trying to fix it.
STRS Ohio Watchdogs
Chew on this!
"These people, the retired teachers and active teachers, have been waiting a long time for change. Change is here, change is now, and change is going to happen, and they're trying to stop change, and they're not going to stop change. Change is coming." - Wade Steen, STRS Ohio Board Member, Reinstated April 18, 2024
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ORTA Pension Defense Fund
ORTA’S mission is to monitor, advocate for, and protect the pensions and benefits of its members. In May 2023, Governor Mike DeWine removed Wade Steen from the STRS Ohio Retirement Board. Ohio's Governor has declared war on Ohio's teachers by attacking their pension. He's standing in the way of reform. ORTA has opened a pension defense fund to develop resources for legal and professional support in fighting for Ohio teachers. Please consider helping out by donating today. ORTA's Executive Council has determined that the first action from the fund will be to use monies to help Wade Steen. The monies will go towards the legal expenses he will incur in challenging his improper removal from the STRS Ohio Retirement Board by the Governor. Please rally around this cause!
"Without the promised COLA from STRS and increasing inflation, I was forced to go back to work to pay my bills. I initially began using my savings to pay for the costs above what my pension covered, but soon realized that it wouldn't sustain me for long. It is at that point that I had to go back to work. I never envisioned having to continue working, probably for the rest of my life, but that is the position I was put in by STRS when they broke their promise to their retirees." - Rebecca Banghoff
Unretire: to return to the workforce after having been retired.
Are you unretired? Use this form to share why you went back to work after retiring.
Ohio STRS Member Only Forum
The MOF was started in 2017 by Joe Lupo, a retired public school adminstrator, after the suspension of the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) by STRS Ohio. The MOF has over 35,000 members, active and retired teachers who are members of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. The MOF was instumental in electing the past five members to the STRS Ohio Retirement Board. The MOF Facebook group is a dynamic discussion about all things related to STRS Ohio and Ohio teachers' retirement benefits. Many of the documents and articles featured in the MOF are posted by John Curry, who manages a clearinghouse of emails, documents, and articles about STRS Ohio.
Pension Warriors
"I am America's leading forensic expert investigating pension and retirement plan abuses. My mission is to prepare you to fight to protect the pension you were promised." - Edward Siedle
Pension Warriors focuses on providing forensic insights to subscribers about pension and retirement plan abuses. Our goal is to explain mismanagement and wrongdoing in a manner that is both understandable and actionable. We don’t want to scare you—we want to prepare you to fight to protect your retirement security, i.e., to ensure that promises made are indeed, kept.
Kathie Bracy's Blog
Kathie Bracy’s Blog is a forum for Ohio educators, sharing thoughts regarding their health care and pension system, STRS Ohio. Kathie’s blog is a virtual repository of STRS Ohio history since 2003. Many of the documents and articles featured in Kathie’s blog are contributed by John Curry, who manages a clearinghouse of emails, documents, and articles about STRS Ohio.
A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Baylor University School of Music, Kathie is a professional symphony musician by background. She is also a retired elementary classroom teacher (nonmusic), having taught in the Alliance (OH) City Schools 2-1/2 years and the Columbus Public Schools 30 years. Kathie's first job was as harp instructor at The University of Texas; currently she is a Lecturer in Harp at The University of Mount Union. As a retired educator and a life member of a number of professional organizations, including the Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association and the Ohio Education Association-Retired, she also worked with the Concerned Ohio Retired Educators (CORE) which officially disbanded in 2012, to help bring about badly needed reform in our teachers retirement system, STRS Ohio.
Did you know that the state of Ohio is third in the number of Social Security recipients whose retirement benefits are negatively impacted by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO)?
The National WEP & GPO Repeal Movement is a grassroots Facebook movement to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), focusing on a political action model and education. Their Facebook group functions as a repository of political action where you can easily access campaigns to fight to repeal the WEP & GPO.
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