In yet another controversial decision in the ongoing DeRolph case, Ohio’s Supreme Court ruled last month, by a 4-3 margin, that Ohio’s method of public school funding is unconstitutional.
The Dec. 12 ruling marks the third time in the case’s 11-year history that the Supreme Court has ruled the property-tax-based system for school funding to be in violation of Ohio’s 150-year-old constitution.
Many remain concerned that there is no end in sight after the latest ruling, which ordered lawmakers to fix the system yet gave no deadline, while relinquishing jurisdiction of the case.
“Although this ruling should precipitate swift action from the assembly, nothing will be accomplished without an enforcement mechanism,” said William L. Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding.
In 1991, the OCEASF filed their case against Ohio on behalf of Nathan DeRolph, a high school sophomore from Perry County. On March 24, 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court gave the General Assembly a year to completely overhaul the funding system, including an order to reduce dependence on local property taxes.
In 1999, Gov. Bob Taft devoted the new budget exclusively to education. Two years later, the legislature increased funding to the schools by $1.4 billion while providing further parity aid to poorer districts to reduce the disparities between the wealthy and poor school districts.
Despite the billions of dollars spent on this case by legislation, the court reaffirmed its previous rulings that the General Assembly must enact a school funding scheme that is “thorough and efficient.” With this latest decision, Ohio’s Supreme Court has concluded that the state has simply not done enough to close the gap in funding.
The billions of dollars spent attempting to resolve the case has affected not only the state’s budget, but college students as well.
“The result of the DeRolph decision and subsequent spending by our assembly is the shifting of more than $600 million from higher learning towards K-12 education,” said Rep. Timothy J. Grendell, R-Chesterland. “There has been no evidence that the spending of that money has resolved the problem.”
Grendell also said the DeRolph case was a major factor in the removal of state tuition caps on public universities because of the reallocation of the budget.
House Democrats contend it is time for the legislature to adhere to the court’s ruling.
“It is our job to come up with a system that will provide equitable education for all children,” said Assistant Minority Leader Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus. “This case is over a decade old. We need to work together in a bipartisan way and fix the system.”
Phillis has threatened to pursue further legal action against the state if the court-ordered “complete, systematic overhaul” of Ohio’s system is not achieved. That would be the equivalent of finding the state in contempt of the court for failing to comply with the order.
Gov. Taft disagrees with the presumption that the state has failed to do its part in reducing the inequalities of funding in school districts across the state.
“We are heading in the right direction and doing everything we can to improve the situation,” said Taft’s spokesman, Joe Andrews. “We have increased per-pupil spending and new construction of schools despite our tight budget.”
Phillis wasn’t so optimistic about the legislatures future compliance with the ruling.
“We fully expect them to resist the language of the decision, and that would be unfortunate for the kids of Ohio.”
