BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio -- State leaders are hoping the power of television can convince a judge they have fixed the way Ohio spends money to build and operate public schools.
Thursday, the fourth day of hearings before Judge Linton Lewis of Perry County Common Pleas Court, the state's lawyers played a videotape. It documented some of the more than $1 billion in improvements to Ohio's crumbling school buildings since a coalition of school districts sued the state in 1991.
The video walks viewers through new and renovated schools in poor, rural school districts throughout southeast Ohio, depicting freshly painted classrooms, fully equipped computer labs and weight rooms overlooking glossy gymnasium floors.
At one point, the video shows a stuffed Barney doll next to a big-screen TV in a spacious library.
"The state's hard work is paying off," Randall Fischer, executive director of the Ohio School Facilities Commission, says on the videotape. "Although much remains to be done, in many Ohio school districts, school buildings are better than they ever have been before."
By showing the video, attorneys representing the state tried to convince Judge Lewis that Gov. George Voinovich and the Republican-controlled General Assembly have abolished a school funding system in which the quality of the schools often depended on the wealth of their communities.
The state's video also was a belated response to a 1996 PBS documentary that showed the nation images of Ohio schools where floors buckled, plaster fell from ceilings and children were taught in converted coal bins. Leaders of the schools coalition have distributed copies of the PBS video throughout Ohio to bolster their emotional appeals for reform.
While TV plays an important role in shaping public opinion, conditions documented by the TV special also were symptoms of an unconstitutional school funding system, according to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Ohio Supreme Court justices who joined the 4-3 majority that struck down the system last year filled their opinions with graphic descriptions of ramshackle classrooms, rain-soaked hallways and computer keyboards caked with coal dust. The high court's decision made it clear that fixing the problems is the state's responsibility. Much has changed during the past seven years, Mr. Fischer told Judge Lewis, whom the high court directed to oversee the state's response.
The $1 billion lawmakers have allocated to build and refurbish schools since 1991 was 10 times the amount spent on school buildings by the state in the previous three decades, he testified.
Moreover, Mr. Fischer said, lawmakers enacted legislation that ensures future governors will include at least $300 million a year for school construction in future capital budgets. The state's construction industry can't handle more than that, he said.
Leaders of the schools coalition contend state leaders haven't made a dent in the problem.
They noted a 1996 federal report determined Ohio's school buildings are the worst in the 50 states. They cited a study last year by the non-partisan Legislative Budget Office that said more than $16 billion is needed for school construction statewide.
Mr. Fischer, a former state architect and top aide to Mr. Voinovich, noted that school districts in property-poor Perry County were among the first to receive state building funds. Statewide, 94 percent of the state's poorest schools have received state building funds, he said.
