BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio -- Karl Marx could not have devised a fairer way to fund public schools than the one adopted by Ohio lawmakers earlier this year, a state lawyer argued Monday.
State Solicitor Jeff Sutton made the unlikely comparison to the co-author of the Communist Manifesto as he attempted to convince a judge the Republican-controlled General Assembly has met an Ohio Supreme Court mandate to devise an adequate and constitutional way to fund public schools.
Responding to critics who argue the plan fails to narrow the gap between rich and poor districts, Mr. Sutton said: "Karl Marx could not have identified a fairer way to distribute wealth." He also offered a more traditional analogy.
"Just as it would be inappropriate to flunk a child on the first day of school, so would it be inappropriate to flunk the school-funding plan before it has even started," Mr. Sutton said during his opening statement. "If anything, we have done too much, not too little." Nicholas Pittner, lead attorney for the coalition of schools that sued the state in 1991, said he would prove the system is a more complicated version of the one the Ohio Supreme Court declared inadequate and unconstitutional in March 1997.
"What we have here is business as usual," Mr. Pittner said. "The state has had 17 months to fix this system and it has utterly failed."
Which side is right might not be resolved for years. But the latest round of the 7-year-old legal battle will be determined by Judge Linton Lewis of Perry County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing two weeks of hearings on legislative changes intended to comply with a Supreme Court decision that ordered a "complete systematic overhaul" of the school-funding system.
Taking the witness stand at the 19th-century courthouse towering over this county seat nestled in the Appalachian foothills, House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson led off the state's defense of changes in the way money is raised, spent and borrowed for the state's 611 school districts.
The Reynoldsburg Republican bristled at suggestions from school attorneys that the reforms failed to meet the high court's order to reduce the state's reliance on property taxes, which has enabled property-rich school districts to spend up to $12,000 per student while others struggle to spend half that amount.
"Every dollar the state puts into the system is a dollar that doesn't have to come off the backs of local property taxpayers," Ms. Davidson testified.
Since a coalition representing more than 500 school districts sued the state, she said, the state has directed millions of dollars to poor schools and created programs to get more computers into classrooms. More than $1 billion has been distributed to fix Ohio's crumbling school buildings -- 10 times the amount spent during the previous 33 years.
Mr. Pittner asked Judge Lewis to order lawmakers to revise a new school funding formula that sets the cost of an adequate education at $3,851 per student this year, raising the amount to $5,051. The higher number, he said, is an inflation-adjusted amount recommended by a panel of school-funding experts hired by the state in 1994 after Judge Lewis declared the system unconstitutional.
Either Judge Lewis or the state Supreme Court should appoint an expert to determine what per-pupil spending should be in future years, Mr. Pittner said.
The system is still broken, he said, because school districts will continue to rely on property taxes for much of their income. He also argued the money earmarked for school construction falls far short of the $16.5 billion needed statewide. A portion of the court ruling ordered lawmakers to ensure no school district would have to borrow money to stay open, but the schools coalition contends the debt problem hasn't been addressed.
During the next week, the state is expected to call other legislative leaders, state Superintendent of Public Instruction John Goff and several school-finance experts to testify on behalf of the changes enacted by lawmakers.
Leaders of the schools coalition will highlight their case with testimony from school superintendents, state lawmakers who opposed the changes and their own school-funding experts. If Ms. Davidson's testimony is a preview of things to come, the debate will focus on recommendations from John Augenblick, a Denver expert who helped Kentucky adopt its education reforms.
Attempting to determine what it costs to guarantee an adequate education for all schoolchildren, Mr. Augenblick reviewed test scores and other academic standards met by Ohio's top school districts. He recommended the state spend $4,269 per student this year, assuming all schools can perform as well as the best if they spend the same amount.
The plan adopted by lawmakers slashed the per-pupil spending Mr. Augenblick recommended to $3,851 this year, with inflationary increases bumping it to $4,014 in four years.
Quintin Lindsmith, one of the school coalition's attorneys, grilled Ms. Davidson repeatedly about why the Republican-controlled General Assembly adopted the lower number. Depositions filed in the case contend the motive was political because taxes would have to be raised to fund the higher number.
Mr. Lindsmith also asked why lawmakers are spending tax dollars to build pro sports stadiums when turn-of-the-century school buildings across the state are crumbling. One school in Morgan County is literally sinking, he said.
"When you have a school building sinking and children crossing a state highway to get to school, are those the right priorities?" Mr. Lindsmith said.
In response, Ms. Davidson said the stadium money comes out of a pot set aside for community projects. It's up to those communities to decide which projects should be financed, she said.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Leland, responding to the Karl Marx remark, said the system is more reminiscent of Groucho Marx.
"This whole Republican Party response to the Supreme Court's education mandate is a joke," he said. "Instead of wasting all summer working on their legal case, Republican leaders like George Voinovich and Robert A. Taft II should have been pushing the Republican controlled legislature to find a real plan to help schools."
As evidence of the education system's shortcomings, Mr. Leland cited a recent Enquirer report that showed just 10 of the state's 611 school districts are considered "effective" under new standards imposed by the legislature.
Columbus Bureau Chief Sandy Theis contributed to this story.
