Sunday, April 23, 2000
Cincinnati won't join schools' lawsuit
BY James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer
While nine out of Hamilton County's 22 school districts are represented in a lawsuit against the state over school funding, the county's largest district has opted out.
One reason for Cincinnati Public Schools' decision to sit on the sidelines is that the 38,000-student district had already fought a similar battle, and lost.
“There was the feeling on the board that we'd done our share,” said Cincinnati Public's general counsel, John Concannon. “Not only that, the district was undergoing changes and being held up as (an) exemplary district and there was no fight to pick with the state.”
In the 1970s, Cincinnati Public sued the state, claiming funding was unconstitutional. The case made it to the Ohio Supreme Court, which in 1979 decided against the city district, saying that since there was local control, there was no violation.
The most recent case, DeRolph v. the state of Ohio, was filed in 1991, with CPS listed as one of the original 278 districts represented in the suing coalition.
But soon thereafter, the Cincinnati board voted to withdraw from the coalition and has stayed out of the fight since.
“As the case progressed, it became apparent that the city wouldn't automatically be a big winner in this, and the money wasn't worth it,” said Mr. Concannon, referring to the coalition fees.
One school board member, John Gilligan, says it's political.
Cincinnati is the only major district not in the coalition because “there was a feeling that the board was embarrassing our local representatives by suing them,” the former Ohio governor said.
“God knows that the schools could go to rot, but we couldn't embarrass our legislators.”
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