BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
DUBLIN, Ohio -- It was a rare face-to-face meeting but no debate Saturday when the two candidates for Ohio governor, Republican Bob Taft and Democrat Lee Fisher, met with a group of Ohio newspaper editors here.
The Associated Press Society of Ohio, meeting at a hotel in this Columbus suburb, gave each gubernatorial candidate about 20 minutes to lay out his campaign agenda, followed by 10 minutes of questions and answers.
Mr. Fisher arrived at the conference just as Mr. Taft, now Ohio secretary of state, was finishing up. The two shook hands, and Mr. Taft stayed out in the hallway as Mr. Fisher had his turn with the gathering of about 50 newspaper and wire service editors.
Mr. Taft, a Cincinnati native, never mentioned his opponent. But the Democratic candidate, a former Ohio attorney general, jabbed at the Republican candidate over the issue of school funding. Both candidates endorsed Issue 2, the sales tax increase for public school funding that was rejected by 80 percent of Ohio voters in the May 5 primary.
Mr. Fisher said that before the legislature put Issue 2 on the ballot, he suggested to Mr. Taft that they work together "to bring people together on this issue and come up with a solution."
"He said, "I'll deal with the Republicans; you deal with the Democrats,' " Mr. Fisher said. "My response is that that is not leadership."
Mr. Taft said that immediately after Ohio voters rejected the 1-cent sales tax proposal, he laid out a school funding plan that he said would "fund a new school formula without raising taxes, by finding the money within the state's budget."
"We're going to have to find ways of restraining spending in other areas of state government," Mr. Taft said.
The 1-cent sales tax boost was the legislature's response to an Ohio Supreme Court order requiring the state to come up with a new funding formula for public schools, one less dependent on property taxes.
Mr. Taft told the editors Saturday that while coming up with an equitable funding system is important, "our real challenge is to improve academic achievement."
Both gubernatorial candidates referred to a study released this week by the Ohio Business Roundtable that showed that only 7 percent of Ohio's high school seniors have the basic skills required for most skilled, entry-level jobs.
"This is not acceptable," Mr. Fisher said. "I want to know that when my children graduate from high school, their diplomas will be certificates of skills, not certificates of attendence."
Mr. Taft said Ohio public schools need "real proficiency tests" that "really determine whether or not students have the necessary skills to make it out in the marketplace."
In addition to the gubernatorial candidates, the Associated Press editors heard from Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Boyle, a former Cuyahoga County commissioner.
Her Republican opponent, Ohio Gov. George Voinovich, was invited to speak to the editors, but could not attend.
