Wednesday, June 30, 1999
Taft signs $17.2B school budget
BY PAUL SOUHRADA
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft says he hopes the Ohio Supreme Court notices all the extra money and new programs contained in the $17.2 billion education budget he signed Tuesday.
“I believe we have done everything within our power to secure a thorough and efficient education for the children of Ohio,” Mr. Taft told reporters after ceremoniously signing the two-year spending plan at a Columbus elementary school.
“We are funding schools first, and we are doing it on a rational basis as the court told us,” he added. “We're also making a historic commitment to making sure we provide a good school building and up-to-date technology for every child.”
The Ohio Supreme Court declared the state's school-funding system unconstitutional in 1997, ruling that it relied too heavily on local property taxes, created wide disparities between rich and poor school districts, neglected school buildings and did not guarantee a quality education to all children.
The court is reviewing a judge's decision that lawmakers have still not done enough to fix the situation.
The budget signed Tuesday — and taking effect Thursday — contains about $12 billion for primary and secondary schools, representing an 8.8 percent increase for next school year and a 7.4 percent increase for the following year. State- supported colleges and universities will get more than $5 billion.
It also revives Cleveland's school voucher experiment, pays for Mr. Taft's promise to recruit 20,000 reading tutors for his OhioReads project, maintains caps on college tuition increases and provides $435 million for school buildings and technology.
Altogether, the education budget earmarks more than 60 percent of new money coming into the state over the next two years for education, Mr. Taft said.
It's still not constitutional, said William Phillis, the head of the coalition of school districts that challenged the school-funding system in 1991.
“I think the court will find the same deficiencies in the current legislation as in previous legislation they already found unconstitutional,” predicted Mr. Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding.
“There's no evidence of a rational basis for funding, they have not reduced the reliance on property taxes, the emergency loan fund still exists and the school facilities problem hasn't been resolved,” Mr. Phillis said.
“This is just more of the same.”
Despite Mr. Phillis' objections, the education budget won overwhelming support from both parties, and both Republicans and Democrats joined Mr. Taft at the bill signing ceremony.
With work completed on the education budget, Mr. Taft turned his attention to the $23 billion general operating budget, which allocates money for the rest of state government. Mr. Taft had until midnight tonight to sign that legislation.
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