Ohio Auditor Warns State Teachers Pension: Stop Misleading Public, As He Misleads Public
The Ohio Auditor of State doesn't have the wits or guts to hold anyone accountable for state pension abuses. What could be worse? Now, he wants to be Attorney General.

The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, like all of our nationโs public pensions, has increasingly embraced secrecy and demonstrated a willingness to mislead the public on crucial investment matters, such as outlandish fees paid to Wall Street and lackluster performance. Indeed, even after 5 years of litigation, when the pension was recently ordered by the Ohio Court of Appeals to release key investment documents we had long requested for public scrutiny, the pension refusedโindicating it would first have to ask Wall Street for permission to disclose the information.
Rarely, however, are state pensions called-out by fellow state politicians, such as state auditors and Attorneys General, for their lack of transparency and wild misrepresentations to the public. STRS Ohio is a notable exception.
Last year, on April 27, 2024, Keith Faber, the Ohio Auditor of State, sent a blistering letter to the Executive Director and Chair of the $90 billion pension. In his letter, Faber chastised pension executives for misrepresenting to the public that a general transparency award his office granted the pension for 2023 amounted to an endorsement of the public entityโs overall transparency.
To be clear, wrote the Auditor, his officeโs general transparency rating was โsimply our rating of an entityโs compliance with Ohioโs open meeting and public records laws. It is NOT to be taken as the Auditor of Stateโs examination or determination of a public entityโs overall transparency.โ
To be clear, wrote the Auditor, his officeโs general transparency rating was โsimply our rating of an entityโs compliance with Ohioโs open meeting and public records laws. It is NOT to be taken as the Auditor of Stateโs examination or determination of a public entityโs overall transparency.โ
In fact, just a few short months earlierโFaber reminded the pensionโโmy office issued a detailed special audit finding that STRS has a long way to go to being fully transparent with Ohioans, its retirees, and members of the General Assembly. For any person or organization to conflate our StaRS (transparency) award with a determination of overall operational transparency is simply wrong and may serve to confuse the public. As noted in our special audit, we strongly encouraged STRS to change its practices to become more transparent with its STRS Board and members.โ
โFor any person or organization to conflate our StaRS (transparency) award with a determination of overall operational transparency is simply wrong (emphasis added) and may serve to confuse the public (emphasis added). As noted in our special audit, we strongly encouraged STRS to change its practices to become more transparent with its STRS Board and members.โ
STRS did stop touting the glowing transparency rating assigned by Faber. However, as indicated in its response to our public records victory, STRS hasnโt changed its practices one iota and today is even resistant to court-ordered transparency.
Nevertheless, Faberโs StaRS rating system indicates that the pension from July, 2019 through today (June, 2024) has consistently received his officeโs Highest Achievement in Open and Transparent Government Award.
Want to confuse the public? Congrats, Faber, youโve done it.
After two terms as Auditor, which included a bungled so-called special investigation of STRS, Faber is now running for Attorney General. Remarkably, having served as past Chair of the Ohio Retirement Study Council overseeing the stateโs pensions, he has demonstrated dull-wittedness about looting of pensions. Wall Street will be thrilled to see its candidate win.
Wow - that nincompoop is running for AG?
Oh sureโฆ blame the teachers again.
STRS hands out millions in bonuses, hides investment details behind โtrade secrets,โ ignores retirees at board meetings โ but yeah, the systemโs collapsing because Grandma got a 3% COLA she was promised.
This isnโt a pension crisis.
Itโs a governance crisis.
Itโs a betrayal of trust.
Retirees didnโt cause the damage โ they built the system with every paycheck. Now theyโre being thrown under the bus to distract from STRS mismanagement.
Nice try. Not buying it.