What comes next for Ohio's teacher pension fund? Prospects of a 'hostile takeover' are being probed

livemint.com:

an anonymous 14-page memo and other documents containing “disturbing allegations" about the STRS board and was handing them over to authorities. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost launched an investigation the next day into what he called the fund's “susceptibility to a hostile takeover by private interests." He followed up with a lawsuit seeking to unseat two reform-minded board members — Wade Steen and Rudy Fichtenbaum — for backing a plan to turn over $65 billion, or roughly 70% of STRS assets, to a fledgling investment firm called QED. The outfit is co-run by two people, one a former deputy Ohio treasurer, out of a condo in suburban Columbus.

“This isn’t monopoly money; it’s hard-earned income that belongs to teachers," Yost said in launching his probe. “There is a responsibility to act in their best interests." The Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association, a retiree watchdog group, says Steen and Fichtenbaum have been unfairly targeted. The group defends reformers' push for change as a fight against years of opaque management and greed.

Teachers, who are generally ineligible for Social Security and so rely heavily on the fund in retirement, are particularly upset at the dearth of cost-of-living adjustments and market losses that the fund has seen over the years, even as STRS investment professionals have collected large bonuses. They have called for more transparency into the fund's investment and pay practices. “We’ve been calling for an investigation for years," said Robin Rayfield, the association's executive director.