AMENDMENT Proposal would fix school funding

The governor opposes the school funding alternative.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment say they believe their proposal could cut property taxes by more than $2.5 billion statewide and offer a solution to a school-funding system declared unconstitutional by the state's highest court.
"The Legislature hasn't fixed it. The governor hasn't fixed [it]. The only option available would be a constitutional amendment," said Bryan Flannery, a former Cleveland-area state representative who authored the proposed amendment.
The proposal would declare that every school-aged child in the state has a fundamental right to high-quality public schooling.
Planned amendment
The amendment would create the Ohio Educational Opportunities Commission, made up of 19 members appointed by the governor and representing the different regions of the state.
Under the measure, every two years the commission would be required to identify the components of "high-quality educational opportunities" based on high academic standards and the best educational practices.
The "high-quality educational opportunities" would be available to all public school pupils including those identified as gifted and disadvantaged as well as other special needs children, under the proposed amendment.
Additionally, the State Board of Education would be required every two years to conduct expert studies and determine the total cost of the ideas identified by the proposed commission.
If approved, state lawmakers would have to fund 100 percent of the identified cost minus 15 mills of property tax to be generated locally, a provision that backers say could reduce property taxes statewide by more than $2.5 billion.
Flannery said the average number of mills generated locally to support schools is 45.
The proposal doesn't specify where the state would get the money for additional school funding.
Supporters said the proposal could also allow the state to finally meet the standards set by the Ohio Supreme Court, which in four decisions has declared the state's method of funding public schools unconstitutional.
Funding reform
Backers say they have legal opinions from attorneys who successfully sued the state over the school funding system that indicate the amendment would meet constitutional muster.
The high court has said that an over reliance on property taxes to fund public schools has led to inequities between so-called "rich" and "poor" school systems.
"The state Legislature, with regard to school-funding, is absolutely not obeying the Constitution, the court is not enforcing the order, the only thing left to do is take the issue to the people," said Bill Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, the coalition of more than 500 public school districts that successfully challenged the state's school-funding mechanism.
In response to the court case, state officials have poured billions of dollars into primary and secondary education -- much of it to help poor, urban and rural school systems.
State officials also have poured money into school construction and renovation and the overhaul of tests and curricula for school children.
However, the state's efforts aren't enough for backers of the proposed constitutional amendment.
Prioritizing education
Flannery, a Democratic state representative from the Cleveland area from 1999 to 2002, said his proposal would "make public education a priority in Ohio for the first time and funds it first."
Flannery unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state in 2002, losing to Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell.
Mark Rickel, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Bob Taft, said the governor doesn't support the proposed constitutional amendment.
Rickel said the state has boosted funding of public schools by 98 percent since 1991 and is spending $2 million per day to build and renovate schools.
Lingering doubts
Legislative leaders say there could be major questions surrounding the proposed constitutional amendment.
"My question is where does the state get the money?" asked Senate President Bill M. Harris, an Ashland Republican.
"I think the state has been very generous in its funding levels over the last 10 years," Harris said.
House Speaker Pro Tem Charles Blasdel of East Liverpool, the No. 2 House Republican leader, said if backers of the amendment propose to lower property taxes to fund schools around the state, they should identify another revenue source for the state to pick up more of the tab.
"You have to come up with another revenue source," said Blasdel.
Backers of the proposed amendment say they will be canvassing the state to find the approximate 323,000 signatures necessary to place the amendment on the ballot statewide this November.
Backers must collect the signatures, which is roughly 10 percent of the number of Ohioans who voted in the 2002 gubernatorial election, by early August.
"I feel that we're well on our way," Flannery said. He added that amendment backers have coordinators in every county as well as 2,500 petition circulators statewide.