As central Ohio school districts brace for another round of seemingly endless levy campaigns, worn-out voters and school-board members are pleading with state government to come up with an answer. While an overall solution remains elusive, I do have an easy suggestion.

Let's declare a moratorium on unfunded state mandates to school districts. Any piece of legislation that has the potential to cost school districts more than a certain amount should be banned unless the state makes direct payments to the district to fund the new mandate.

How much of a difference can this make? In my own district of Worthington, the mandate for free, all-day kindergarten will likely cost local taxpayers around $1 million per year. Another bill, House Bill 373, seeks to fight childhood obesity by mandating 30 minutes of physical education per day. The cost of this mandate in Worthington could be up to $4 million per year. Together, these two mandates could add, by themselves, close to 3 mills of local property taxes onto our next levy request, and there are plenty of other costly mandates where those came from.

To be sure, each mandate is for a program that someone found worthy, but the collective cost is adding new local-funding requirements to an education system that is close to its breaking point. We need to stop, take a breath and work on a sustainable, affordable system for Ohio education before further burdening local taxpayers with additional mandates.

As we enter the campaign season, candidates for the Ohio legislature will no doubt start talking about how they have solved or will solve Ohio's school-funding crisis. Do not let them off the hook until they agree to a moratorium on unfunded mandates, starting with a repeal of mandatory all-day kindergarten and dropping the new daily physical education requirements.

MARC SCHARE
Dublin