State school-funding issue back in Legislature's lap

In ruling that Ohio's school-funding system is unconstitutional, the Ohio Supreme Court has delivered a stern message to the General Assembly: Stop the legal antics and come up with a new way of financing public schools that is thorough and efficient.
And if Republican Gov. Bob Taft and the Republican controlled Legislature have any ideas about waiting until January, after one of the justices in the majority is no longer around, to ask the court to reconsider, we would direct their attention to the public statements from Chief Justice Thomas Moyer.
Last month, in a meeting with Vindicator writers, after the Nov. 5 general election had revealed Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor as the successor to Justice Andrew Douglas, the chief justice said, "It's our obligation to not leave merit cases beyond [Dec. 31]."
Moyer's statement was prompted by growing public speculation that the high court was going to wait until O'Connor, a Republican, was sworn in to replace Douglas, also a Republican, to issue a ruling on the school-funding case. Why? Because having served with Taft, there is widespread belief that O'Connor shares his views on the whole issue of financing public primary and secondary education in Ohio.
However, the justice-elect has insisted that she had steered clear of the issue during her tenure as lieutenant governor and that she would wait until she read all the legal briefs and other filings pertaining to the so-called DeRolph case before making a decision.
School building program
The governor, on the other hand, agrees with Republicans in the legislature that previous Supreme Court rulings which also found the school-funding system to be unconstitutional were misguided and ignored the fact that Ohio was spending billions on a statewide school building program.
But in writing the 4-3 majority opinion issued Wednesday, Justice Paul Pfeifer, a Republican who had served in the Ohio Senate, called for an "complete systematic overhaul" of the funding system and made it clear that he and his colleagues in the majority -- Douglas, Alice Robie Resnick and Francis Sweeney -- were running out of patience with the General Assembly.
It has been 11 years since the filing of the lawsuit challenging Ohio's method of financing public primary and secondary education and there have been three previous rulings in which the court said that the system was unconstitutional.
The court ruling could carry a price tag of $1.2 billion a year, which state government does not have. The state's operating budget has been cut to the bone, and some Republican legislative leaders have made it clear they would not support a special tax for education.
Indeed, in his opinion, Pfeifer took note of the state's financial crisis and conceded that the Legislature can't spend money it doesn't have.
"Nevertheless, we reiterate that the constitutional mandate must be met," he wrote. "The Constitution protects us whether the state is flush or destitute."
A majority of the justices of the Ohio Supreme Court have spoken and it now up to Gov. Taft and the legislative leaders from both parties to come up with a method of funding public primary and secondary schools that passes constitutional muster.