STRS, or State Teachers Retirement System is a retirement and pension program for public school teachers in the state of Ohio. Annually, each teacher contributes 10% of their salary into the plan and the taxpayer contributes another 14% for a total of 24%. At the end of 30 years, a teacher can retire at around 66% of their final salary and after 35 years, a teacher can retire at 88.5% of final salary. Plan details can be found here.
In order to provide funding for a new never-before-existing health care benefit for retired teachers, STRS is proposing a 2.5% additional taxpayer liability on the salary of every STRS employee in the state. The aggregate cost is around 250,000,000 dollars a year when fully phased in after 5 years. The STRS proposal has been introduced into the Ohio legislature as House Bill 315. This page provides some resources so Ohio residents can judge for themselves whether this increase is warranted.
| Fordham Report on STRS | STRS Rebuttal to Fordham Report | Authors Response to the STRS Rebuttal. |
| OSBA Opposition Toolkit to 5% increase | STRS Brochure about the need for the increase | |