SCHOOL FUNDING Justice is optimistic on talks

The justice is seeking her second six-year term on the state's Supreme Court bench.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton of the Ohio Supreme Court says there has never been a better time to resolve the state's long-standing school funding issue.
The court ordered mediation in the 10-year-long school financing lawsuit in November, two months after the body ordered the state to increase the amount of money it spends on school funding.
When state officials estimated the cost of complying with the court order at $1.2 billion, the court's judges, which did not anticipate the expense being that high, referred it to mediation.
A decision by the mediator is expected at the end of this month, Justice Stratton said.
"I'm optimistic it will be resolved," she told The Vindicator during a Tuesday interview. "If it's going to succeed at any point, it will be now. The two sides were far apart, but with the economy [experiencing problems] and Sept. 11, the two sides are willing to talk."
Justice Stratton said the current Supreme Court wants to resolve this issue and has no interest in waiting until after the November general election, when two seats on the seven-member panel are up for grabs, to tackle the problem.
Re-election: Justice Stratton, a Republican, is up for re-election seeking her second six-year term on the bench. She is being challenged by Judge Janet R. Burnside of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, a Democrat. Justice Andrew Douglas is not permitted to seek re-election because of the court's age restrictions.
A year ago, Justice Stratton said Mahoning County was making significant improvement toward cleaning up corruption in its judicial system. Several judges and lawyers were convicted of taking bribes in recent years. She said Tuesday that the county continues to move in the right direction.
"I haven't seen nor heard of anything from the new batch of judges," she said. "I think things are definitely on the way up here. It was like a dam breaking. People knew about [judicial corruption], but they were afraid to talk about it. Once it came out, it snowballed and the dam broke. People started to speak up."
skolnick@vindy.com