Elitist 'solution


Ohio's education elites have been trying to force through a solution of the school funding problem for a decade and a half. They claim that the schools are funded unequally and many are funded inadequately "” and that much is incontestable.Through their efforts, the Ohio Supreme Court was driven to rule that the current system of school funding is unconstitutional, though the court later backtracked, belatedly recognizing its own constitutional limitations.

However, the problem has not been resolved. The state spends a lot more on education now, but the problems of inequity and inadequacy remain.

Now these elites "” who include the Ohio Education Association, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA), Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA) and several other groups "” have abandoned all expectations that the Ohio General Assembly will come up with the solution they want. Yesterday, they announced a petition drive for a state constitutional amendment that would take school funding out of the hands of legislators and place it under the control of the state board of education and the courts.

Yes, another constitutional amendment. It seems that there's no end to the special interest groups that want to fool people into believing that their elected representatives are incapable of doing the right thing, so we should trust them instead. But in the end they are all special interest groups, and they all want the same thing: More of our money.

The proposed amendment, which would be Section 2a of Article VI of the Ohio Constitution, states that "Each Public School Pupil has a fundamental right to the opportunity for a High Quality Public Education. Such right shall be guaranteed by the state, as provided in this amendment, for all Public School Pupils, regardless of school district property values, income levels or other demographic or geographic factors." This would create a court-enforceable mandate to justify the rest of the amendment "” which includes a half-page of definitions and three pages of provisions that can be boiled down to this: The state school board is to determine how much money the schools need each year, and the Legislature has to provide it. Period.

It's essentially a blank check. And that's really what these people have been after all along.

The proposed amendment would increase the state bureaucracy, adding two new agencies to oversee school funding. It would constitutionally impose education funding priorities while forcing the Legislature to raise taxes and cut funding to other programs like Medicaid. And of course the lion's share "” around 80 percent "” of the additional money would go to teachers and administrators.

So far, reaction to the amendment has been virtually 100 percent negative, outside the education community. Gov. Ted Strickland says it gives too much authority to the state board of education. The Ohio Business Roundtable observed that it says little about student performance and is all about money.

Ohio voters are smart enough that this amendment doesn't stand a chance of passage. But for sure there will be enough misguided registered voters to get it qualified for the November ballot. What we'd love to see is an ensuing public debate that pressures the Legislature into crafting a workable, equitable and politically acceptable school funding plan of its own.