The Associated Press

DUNCAN FALLS – Improving Ohio’s education system is the state’s greatest challenge, Gov.

Tuesday, July 25, 2000

DUNCAN FALLS – Improving Ohio’s education system is the state’s greatest challenge, Gov. Bob Taft said Tuesday morning at the start of a trip to solicit ideas on school funding from people outside Columbus.

Taft visited Duncan Falls Elementary School, about 60 miles east of Columbus, before attending a panel discussion with educators and community and business leaders.

He told about 75 people gathered in the school gymnasium that while many state officials are working on the school funding issue, people across Ohio should contribute to the effort.

”We want to be very inclusive in our search for potential and realistic solutions to the issues that are still outstanding from the DeRolph decision,” he said. ”We want to leave no stone unturned and that’s why we’re here today to listen and learn.”

The Ohio Supreme Court twice has ruled that the state’s school-funding system is unconstitutional because it relies too much on local property taxes, creating disparities between rich and poor districts.

The elementary school completed a $3.6 million renovation and addition in 1998 under a state building program created following the Supreme Court’s first school funding decision in 1997.

”I don’t think anyone expects a silver-bullet solution to appear that no one ever thought of before that solves all problems and pleases everyone completely equally,” Taft spokesman Scott Milburn said Monday.

”The governor’s interested in hearing what different people think about the different ideas that are out there,” Milburn said.

Eastern Ohio was chosen for the first trip because that’s where the legality of the school-funding system was first challenged, Milburn said. In 1991, a coalition of school districts sued on behalf of Nathan DeRolph, then a student at Northern Local school district in Perry County.

The Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding argued that, by underfunding poor districts such as Northern Local, the system violated the Ohio Constitution’s call for a ”thorough and efficient” system of education.

Also Tuesday, the coalition and a bipartisan committee of lawmakers was to meet in Columbus for the first time to discuss ways to respond to the Supreme Court decision to fix the system.

A successful meeting would end with both sides agreeing to meet again and having figured out a process for determining what constitutes a thorough and efficient education, said William Phillis, the coalition’s executive director.

The cost of that education won’t come up, he said.

”At this point, it would be counterproductive to be talking about numbers,” he said. ”You really can’t get out a number unless you can agree on what you’re buying.”

No issue is off limits for discussion, including a settlement of the DeRolph suit, although it’s unlikely either side meeting Tuesday would seriously pursue the idea, said Rep. Randy Gardner. He’s a Bowling Green Republican and co-chairman of the legislative committee studying the school-funding problem.

”It really would be inappropriate for any significant settlement to take place anyway amongst our group because we’re not the only game in town,” Gardner said. ”There’s a number of other important committees and groups that must be part of that.”

State Sen. Robert Cupp, also a committee co-chairman, describes the meeting as ”simply a beginning.”

”I don’t think anyone expects a conclusion (Tuesday), but it’s an opportunity to begin to understand each other, and hopefully, over the long term, be able to come to some solution to our school funding problem,” said Cupp, a Republican from Lima.