鈥楬igh-quality education鈥� sought via amendment
A coalition of 12 Ohio public school groups is moving to take the issue to voters by placing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would guarantee students a 鈥渉igh-quality public education.鈥�
James E. Betts, a spokesman for the coalition, called Getting It Right for Ohio鈥檚 Future, said parents and students no longer can wait for lawmakers to act.
鈥淭he General Assembly has certainly made some changes, but they haven鈥檛 provided a systematic overhaul the court required,鈥� Mr. Betts said.
The first ruling came in 1997 in response to a school funding lawsuit filed six years earlier. The state鈥檚 high court found that Ohio鈥檚 system of paying for its schools was unconstitutional because it relied too much on property taxes, forced some districts to borrow money for basic operations, and didn鈥檛 provide enough money for facilities, according to the National Access Network, a New York City-based organization that tracks such litigation.
In 2003, the court gave up jurisdiction of the case, thus ending the legal battle.
The proposed amendment would establish the right to a high-quality education and charge the 19-member state board of education with determining鈥攕ubject to a legislative override鈥攈ow much such an education system would cost.
Supporters submitted their initial petition for the amendment to the Ohio attorney general on Jan. 17. But they will need 400,000 signatures before the question can appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.
Opponents are already lining up.
Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who took office this month, isn鈥檛 inclined to support it, said his spokesman, Keith Dailey. The governor will work on a legislative solution.
And the Ohio Roundtable, a public-policy organization, isn鈥檛 impressed鈥攐r especially diplomatic in its assessment. It already calls the proposed amendment a 鈥減ower grab鈥� that would put school funding in the hands of an 鈥渆ducational bureaucracy鈥� rather than the elected legislature.
