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The teachers Midwest state pension fund is the subject of an audit by state auditor Keith Faber’s office. This news did go over big with educators at a meeting Thursday of the pension fund board.

It was first reported, the audit, by the local Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau.

In fact, the $94.5 billion in assets for half a million teachers is managing by the State Teachers Retirement System. This amount accounts for the assets of half a million teachers. Therefore, some of the retired educators did hire an investigator to look into the fund’s performance. Also, the fees after their cost of living adjustment were eliminating in 2017.

Teachers and Their Concerns

After 30 years of teaching, Suzanne Laird retired. In fact, she is still working as a substitute teacher in the Ohio City Schools to pay for higher health care premiums.

Moreover, she has been coming to the STRS board meetings for years. She told the board, on Thursday, they should be “ashamed” for not listening to teachers. They were actually upset about the loss of the COLA and about their concerns over the fees and money manager bonuses.

“You really thought we didn’t know anything. Then you called us a bunch of malcontents. In fact, the state auditor has stepped up,” Laird said.

During the STRS meeting, the teachers in the room burst into applause. That was when Laird did finish her public comments to the board.

Numerous complaints were receiving by the auditor’s office after the former SEC attorney Ted Siedler was hiring by a retired teacher to look into the fund. Moreover, Siedle’s Benchmark Financial Services has done some close reviews of pension funds in other states.

Therefore, Siedle’s report said STRS “had to long abandon the transparency. Thus choosing instead to collaborate with Wall Street firms to eviscerate Ohio public records laws. Moreover, avoid accountability to stakeholders. It seems the billions that could have been using to pay teachers retirement benefits have been squandering over time as the transparency has ceased to be a priority.”

In response, STRS said which was sharing at the board’s August meeting. That, in fact, Siedle’s allegations are “baseless” and the fund had outperformed the market during the last decade.