Lawmaker sues governor for school-funding plan

COLUMBUS (AP) — A Republican state lawmaker went to court Monday to force Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland to reveal more details about how he developed the school-funding plan that he has said must be a hallmark of his term in office.

Rep. Seth Morgan, a Republican from Huber Heights in suburban Dayton, filed a lawsuit asking the Ohio Supreme Court to require the governor to release additional information, including e-mails, reports, notes and consultants’ contracts, related to the creation of the plan.

Strickland made reforming Ohio’s unconstitutional school funding system a 2006 campaign promise. In January’s State of the State speech, Strickland announced his proposal for an “evidence-based” education system. That plan would require schools to use programs based on research findings and would set standards for students, teachers and districts.

Among other changes, the plan would shift more of the financial burden to the state and away from local property taxes.

Strickland said while campaigning for governor in 2006 that he would be a failure if he did not present a solution to Ohio’s school funding system.

Since the introduction of Strickland’s school-funding proposal, Republican legislators and education advocates have increasingly complained that they lack the information to scrutinize his proposed fix.

Morgan, a member of a committee reviewing the schools plan, said he applauded Strickland for taking a bold approach to changing how Ohio pays for education.

“We need to be bold in these economic times,” Morgan said. “But don’t be bold and then barricade yourself in the office and not be forthright with the Ohio people. That’s not good leadership.”

A Strickland spokeswoman said every lawmaker has access to complete information about the school-funding proposal, including dozens of supporting documents.

“It’s regrettable that a legislator has turned to the courts rather than working in a bipartisan manner to have a legitimate, substantive public policy debate,” said spokeswoman Amanda Wurst.

Wurst called Morgan’s request vague and overly broad, saying it could take months to compile information located in at least 98 e-mail accounts involving 74,000 pages of documents.

Strickland’s office never informed Morgan the request was too broad, said April Corbett, a spokeswoman for House Republicans.

Morgan said he first asked Strickland for information about the plan with an informal letter Feb. 25 to John Stanford, Strickland’s education adviser.

Morgan said he never heard back, but learned on March 2 that Strickland had received 4,100 pieces of information to help develop his funding plan during two years of traveling through the state.

Morgan said he asked again about the information and still heard nothing. Then, on March 12, Morgan said he received an almost 400-source draft bibliography of studies and reports upon which the funding formula is based.

Morgan said that wasn’t good enough, pointing out there were places where the sources conflicted with Strickland’s plan.

Wurst said Morgan had asked for the bibliography to begin with. Morgan said Monday he never asked anyone for the document.

Morgan filed his first official open records request the same day and filed a second March 25, the lawsuit said.

“The Governor has no legally valid excuse for refusing to produce the requested records or for failing to respond to Rep. Morgan’s public records requests,” the lawsuit said.

Morgan’s lawsuit seeks e-mails and other documents concerning Strickland’s proposal.