Law & Courts

Ohio Court Rejects State School Aid System

By Mary Ann Zehr — January 08, 2003 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

It’s back to the drawing board for Ohio leaders, following the recent ruling by the state supreme court that the school aid system violates the state constitution and must be overhauled.

In its fourth and final ruling in the case, the court left it to Gov. Bob Taft and state legislators to find a resolution to the 11-year-old school finance lawsuit, called DeRolph v. State of Ohio.

It provided no deadline or enforcement mechanism, however.

In the 4-3 decision last month, the Ohio Supreme Court stated that the legislature hadn’t met the directive of the court’s first ruling, issued in 1997, to provide a “complete systematic overhaul” of the school funding system. The court said that the legislature must address the directives of the first two court rulings. The court reiterated its position that an overhaul of the system is needed, “not further nibbling at the edges.”

The ruling puts an end to the possibility that a change in the make up of the court as a result of the Nov. 5 elections would have an impact on the lawsuit’s outcome. The court made the ruling before the term for the new court began.

The decision, though, leaves the future of school funding in the Buckeye State far from certain: From the perspective of a coalition representing the plaintiffs, the final ruling is clear on how legislators should proceed, but from the state’s point of view, it is not. Some analysts even suggest that the legislature will make no changes.

Outgoing state Attorney General Betty Montgomery, who had defended the current system of funding as constitutional, characterized the Dec. 11 ruling as “somewhat less than clear.”

“While some members [of the court] appear to suggest a complete overhaul of the system is in order, others seem to feel that only minor modifications would be necessary to remedy Ohio’s school funding system,” she said in a statement.

‘A Blindfold On’

“It’s a confusing ruling,” agreed Mary Anne Sharkey, the communications director for Gov. Taft, a Republican. “The court dismissed the case. ... But they still found the system to be unconstitutional.”

Ms. Sharkey said that the governor believes he and the legislature have already addressed the problems pointed out in the first two rulings by increasing school funding, but that Mr. Taft also realizes more will have to be done. If the legislature does nothing to respond to the latest decision, she said, the state will likely face subsequent lawsuits.

“To say there isn’t any direction there [in the decision] is to put a blindfold on,” argued William L. Phillis, the executive director of the plaintiffs’ coalition, in response to contentions that the ruling wasn’t clear. He said that the high court’s first two rulings, which the final ruling said stand as law, gave plenty of direction for problems that the state needs to address.

For example, he said, the 1997 decision says that the state depends too much on local property taxes to pay for schooling, and that the formula for schools’ per-pupil funding isn’t related to the cost of an adequate education.

Mr. Phillis said his coalition of more than 550 school districts, called the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy in School Funding, hadn’t yet decided what it would do if the legislature failed to respond adequately to the court’s order.

“The bottom line is,” he said, “we don’t plan to go away.”

Falling Revenues

One challenge for legislators is finding a way to change the school funding system at the same time that Ohio faces financial problems. Most people, after all, agree that changing the system will require more money.

Michael C. Shoemaker, a Democrat who served in the legislature for 20 years and lost his Senate race in November, blames the Republican-dominated legislature for promising voters not to raise taxes, thus leaving no means to raise more money for schooling.

“They ran on a platform of banning new taxes,” said the former senator of Republicans. “Now they’ve painted themselves into a very small corner with this no-tax rhetoric. It’s time they tell the public, ‘We lied to you.’”

But Richard H. Finan, a Republican who was the president of the Senate until he retired last month, said that through increasing spending for schooling and other means, legislators have already addressed the issues raised by the lawsuit, and that the supreme court is wrong.

He suggested that one solution to handling the court’s order to fix the system would be to amend the Ohio Constitution to remove from the court its authority in the matter.

“The Ohio legislature should be allowed to determine what is ‘thorough and efficient’ [as worded in the state constitution] for schools,” he argued.

One of the justices, Alice Robie Resnick, who concurred with the court’s final ruling, also suggested that the state constitution should be changed to resolve the matter.

In her written opinion, Justice Resnick said that the constitution needed to be altered so that the legislature would be forced to fix the current funding system. She suggested that the constitution be changed to include a specific dollar amount that the state would be required to spend per pupil and a formula for arriving at that number that would ensure sufficient aid for schools year after year.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Engaging Every Learner: Strategies to Boost Math Motivation
Math Motivation Boost! Research & real tips to engage learners.
Content provided by Prodigy Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Well-Being Webinar
The Ripple Effect: Mental Health & Student Outcomes
Learn how student mental health impacts outcomes—and how to use that data to support your school’s IEP funding strategy.
Content provided by Huddle Up
Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum How AI Use Is Expanding in K-12 Schools
Join this free virtual event to explore how AI technology is—and is not—improving K-12 teaching and learning.

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 Trump Admin. Ends a Decades-Old School Desegregation Order—And Expects to End Others
Officials suggested that other desegregation orders dating to the Civil Rights Movement should be reconsidered.
5 min read
Students from Charlotte High School in Charlotte, N.C., ride a bus together, May 15, 1972.
Students from Charlotte High School in Charlotte, N.C., ride a bus together on May 15, 1972.
Harold L. Valentine/AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Appears Open to Religious Charter School
The U.S. Supreme Court grappled with whether charter schools are public schools and whether the Constitution permits a religious charter.
7 min read
Supporters of charter schools rally outside of the Supreme Court on April 30, 2025, in Washington.
Supporters of religious charter schools rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on April 30, 2025, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Poised to Back Student in Key Disability-Rights Case
The U.S. Supreme Court considered what liability standard should apply for cases brought by students under two key federal disability laws.
6 min read
The Tharpe family, pictured outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on April 28, 2025.
Gina and Aaron Tharpe appear outside the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 with their daughter Ava, who has a severe form of epilepsy. The court is weighing what liability standard should apply to the suit for damages they filed against their school district.
Mark Walsh/Education Week
Law & Courts Supreme Court Case Could Reshape Landscape for Charter and Religious Schools
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 30 will take up the much-debated case of a Roman Catholic charter school in Oklahoma.
9 min read
Supreme Court 25091823131249
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington on April 1, 2025. The court on April 30 will take up a much-debated case about whether a state must allow a religious charter school.