Law & Courts

Ohio Court Declares End To DeRolph School Funding Case

By Mary Ann Zehr — May 28, 2003 | Corrected: February 23, 2019 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Corrected: Robert A. Gardner is the Republican who chairs the education committee of the state Senate. We accidentally misspelled his name in this story.

The Ohio Supreme Court has issued its final decision on a state school funding case that has persisted for 12 years.

In the May 16 ruling, the court reiterated its judgment in several previous rulings that the system for financing education violates the state constitution, and that the duty to fix the problem lies with the legislature. (“Ohio Court Rejects State School Aid System,” Jan. 8, 2003.)

But in its 5-2 final ruling, the court also made clear that the long-running case was over—that neither the state high court itself or “any other court” has jurisdiction over the case. That declaration leaves the plaintiffs no mechanism, at least as far as the court is concerned, to ensure that the current unconstitutional system is fixed.

“It’s like the court said, ‘You are guilty but you are free,’” said William L. Phillis, the executive director of the Columbus-based Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, which filed the lawsuit against the state, called DeRolph v. State of Ohio, in 1991.

He said the chances that the legislature would fix the current funding system were slim now, given that the legislature didn’t fundamentally fix the system during the years that the court maintained jurisdiction over the case.

The final ruling was a response to an effort by the plaintiffs to get a lower-court judge—Perry County Common Pleas Court Judge Linton D. Lewis Jr.— to supervise a conference on how the legislature would comply with the supreme court’s judgment.

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro asked the supreme court to deny that request. In its final ruling, the court clarified that indeed the case was over and no further action regarding it should occur in any state court.

Not in Vain

Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, recognizes that he and the legislature have the responsibility to make sure the state’s education system is “thorough and efficient,” as required by the Ohio Constitution, said Ann Husted, his communications director.

But “on the same level,” she added, “the governor has the constitutional responsibility to balance the budget.” The budget for fiscal 2004 is now being debated in the state Senate.

Sen. Robert Garner, a Republican who is the chairman of the Senate education committee, said the legislature has already done a lot in the past 10 years to address the problems with the funding system.

He argued, for example, that per-pupil funding for Ohio public school students has more than doubled since the DeRolph lawsuit was filed. And while from 1954 to 1997, the state spent only $174 million on school facilities, it has spent $3.6 billion on such facilities since 1997. “The urgency is over,” Mr. Garner said.

Mr. Phillis, whose group represents the plaintiffs, cited some of the same figures to demonstrate that the plaintiffs had not undertaken the DeRolph lawsuit in vain.

The state would never have increased its spending on school facilities to the extent that it did if his coalition hadn’t filed the lawsuit, Mr. Phillis asserted.

In addition, he said, the case caused the state to clarify that the legislature’s obligation to provide a “thorough and efficient” education to Ohio’s schoolchildren meant providing a high-quality education, not simply keeping school doors open.

However, he said, the state never did what the court had ordered it to do in its decisions.

“There’s been no structural change in the funding,” Mr. Phillis said. He added that lawmakers have failed to tie the funding level with the actual cost of providing a high-quality education.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts Oklahoma Nonbinary Student's Death Shines a Light on Families' Legal Recourse for Bullying
Students facing bullying and harassment from their peers face legal roadblocks in suing districts, but settlements appear to be on the rise
11 min read
A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school bathroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, on Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Federal officials will investigate the Oklahoma school district where Benedict died, according to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education on March 1, 2024.
A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school restroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, on Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Federal officials will investigate the Oklahoma school district where Benedict died, according to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education on March 1, 2024.
Nate Billings/The Oklahoman via AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Declines Case on Selective High School Aiming to Boost Racial Diversity
Some advocates saw the K-12 case as the logical next step after last year's decision against affirmative action in college admissions
7 min read
Rising seniors at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology gather on the campus in Alexandria, Va., Aug. 10, 2020. From left in front are, Dinan Elsyad, Sean Nguyen, and Tiffany Ji. From left at rear are Jordan Lee and Shibli Nomani. A federal appeals court’s ruling in May 2023 about the admissions policy at the elite public high school in Virginia may provide a vehicle for the U.S. Supreme Court to flesh out the intended scope of its ruling Thursday, June 29, 2023, banning affirmative action in college admissions.
A group of rising seniors at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology gather on the campus in Alexandria, Va., in August 2020. From left in front are, Dinan Elsyad, Sean Nguyen, and Tiffany Ji. From left at rear are Jordan Lee and Shibli Nomani. The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 declined to hear a challenge to an admissions plan for the selective high school that was facially race neutral but designed to boost the enrollment of Black and Hispanic students.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Law & Courts School District Lawsuits Against Social Media Companies Are Piling Up
More than 200 school districts are now suing the major social media companies over the youth mental health crisis.
7 min read
A close up of a statue of the blindfolded lady justice against a light blue background with a ghosted image of a hands holding a cellphone with Facebook "Like" and "Love" icons hovering above it.
iStock/Getty
Law & Courts In 1974, the Supreme Court Recognized English Learners' Rights. The Story Behind That Case
The Lau v. Nichols ruling said students have a right to a "meaningful opportunity" to participate in school, but its legacy is complex.
12 min read
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William O. Douglas is shown in an undated photo.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, shown in an undated photo, wrote the opinion in <i>Lau</i> v. <i>Nichols</i>, the 1974 decision holding that the San Francisco school system had denied Chinese-speaking schoolchildren a meaningful opportunity to participate in their education.
AP