TOLEDO, Ohio —
Retirement was something Susan Santoro said she didn't think about, other than with excitement.
After working 31 years in education, she became the Lucas County Retired Teachers Association president. She said she was told that Ohio had one of the best teacher retirements in the country, but now, she's not so sure.
The State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) of Ohio is where teachers pay in to receive retirement funds.
"It feels like we are not supported," Santoro said.
When she retired, she said she was promised a cost of living adjustment, or COLA, every year that accounts for the cost of living going up.
Santoro said she received one after she retired and a few additional ones, but none of them were regularly paid.
An STRS spokesperson said the STRS board approved a 3 percent COLA in the 2023 fiscal year and a 1 percent COLA for the 2024 fiscal year.
This is after she and others said the STRS management has been receiving bonuses.
"While reducing our retirement and causing people to pay more the employees have received lavish bonuses," Robin Rayfield, executive director of the Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association, said.
An STRS representative said in 2023, the STRS board approved approximately "$8.6 million in performance-based incentive payments at its August 2023 meeting."
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Santoro said it's frustrating to not get her COLA payment, and then see the management get bonuses.
"It makes it impossible to plan for your future and to budget," Santoro said. "It's frankly become troublesome financially for a lot of our members."
To help advocate for retired teachers, Rayfield said teachers have been working to vote in reformers to sit on the STRS pension board.
"People who want reform, I'd rather call them 'people who want transparency,' have won landslide elections," Rayfield said, regarding the STRS pension board.
The teachers advocating for reform now hold a majority on the pension board.
This concern comes after Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit against two STRS pension board members last week.
Rayfield said he thinks the investigation is coming after the win giving reform-advocating teachers the majority.
Santoro said she would like to see the lawsuit against the two board members to be dropped and that the governor should investigate what is going on with the board.
She said now that there is a majority of reform board members, she thinks there will be change.
"Things are very promising that we will be heard," Santoro said. "But it appears that the governor is again trying to undermine all that."