A group calling itself the Campaign for Ohio’s Future has begun a drive to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to fix the state’s school-funding mess.

We would be the first to agree that the state’s funding system, which repeatedly has been declared unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court, is in desperate need of an overhaul. But we think this vague, poorly thought-out proposal isn’t the answer.

The Campaign for Ohio’s Future launched a drive this week to secure 400,000 signatures to get the proposal on the ballot this fall.

The proposal isn’t totally without merit. It would provide strict accountability for school funding and spending, decrease the local share of funding for schools and increases the state share, provide property tax relief for senior citizens and the disabled and would eliminate “phantom revenue,” non-existent local tax revenues used to reduce the amount of state funding for local schools.

But one of the key provisions of the amendment concerns us. It would take the responsibility of the Legislature to decide how much money schools would get every year and give it to the Ohio Board of Education. The Legislature, according to this amendment, could reject the board recommendation by a three-fifths vote.

We think the Legislature should set funding levels. Lawmakers, unlike the state school board, have to look at the big picture – what is needed to operate the entire state, not just the schools. We can’t forget that Medicaid takes a major chunk out of the state budget.

This amendment would make a “high quality public education” a fundamental right of all students, but it doesn’t address the question of how much it would cost to meet this fundamental right. Undoubtedly, if approved, it would lead to either massive tax in- creases or massive cuts in services, since it’s unlikely that the state board would skimp on funding our schools.

And, as we’ve said before, we don’t like constitutional amendments. If this proposal is approved by the voters in November, we would be stuck with it, whether it works or not, until another constitutional amendment was passed to undo it.

Gov. Ted Strickland has indicated he wants to work with the Legislature to come up with a solution to our school funding problem. We think it makes sense to wait and see what the governor and lawmakers come up with first – before voting on some ill-conceived fix.

The sponsors of this amendment have dubbed their campaign, “Getting it Right for Ohio’s Future.” We don’t think they’ve got it right.