COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court's message to the General Assembly last year was emphatic: Reduce the gap between poor and rich schools, and do it by June 15.

        Majority Republicans who met that deadline with a $1.4 billion spending plan say they finally solved the school funding dilemma. Though it has yet to take effect, the plan now faces its ultimate test. It starts Friday when the Ohio Supreme Court puts it under a microscope.

FUNDING PLAN

How much local districts would get from the state

        As they get ready to defend their reforms, legislative leaders and Gov. Bob Taft are struggling to answer several questions. Among the toughest:

        • How can $1.4 billion for schools be better than a $3.2 billion option Mr. Taft rejected?

        • Why did officials shelve a report showing $500 million in unfunded school mandates?

        • Is a 3 percent state funding increase for Cincinnati Public Schools an improvement?

        Members of a coalition of schools that has twice successfully sued the state say there are no good answers. For those and other reasons they say the high court will quickly tell lawmakers “try again.”

        While Republicans doggedly predict victory for their plan, they once openly worried about what would happen if the court rejected it.

        Justice Alice Robie Resnick, one of four justices who ruled against the state, increased anxiety in April when she said the court might hold the General Assembly in contempt.

        That prompted House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, to speculate the court could even order schools closed until another plan is approved.

        Though those would be extreme options, the stage is set for a constitutional crisis in Ohio government.

        “I think we're at a stage in this state where the whole thing's come to a head,” Mr. Householder said in April. “Either we're going to resolve this or we're going to have a fiscal crisis or we're going to have a constitutional crisis, depending on which direction it goes.”

        At the root of the contro versy are 612 school districts defined by their property taxes as “poor or rich” and the Ohio Constitution, which demands a “thorough and efficient system of common schools.”

        When the school funding lawsuit began in 1991, some Ohio students were surfing the Internet in new suburban schools. Others, in poor areas, were paging through dog-eared texts in 1930s-era classrooms.

        The suing schools, the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy in Education, won a landmark victory in 1997 when the Ohio Supreme Court declared the school funding system unconstitutional. The 4-3 decision ordered the General Assembly to fix things.

        Though lawmakers sent record amounts to schools and created a $10 billion school construction program, it wasn't enough.

        A second 4-3 high court decision last year found schools still rely on property taxes as their main source of funding, meaning big gaps still exist between wealthy and poor districts.

        Indian Hill Schools spent $10,606 per student in 1999-2000. while Fairland Schools in Lawrence County spent $5,219 per pupil.

        The court also told lawmakers to redefine the cost of an adequate education, fund new academic standards and improve their school construction plan.

        “In order to create a thorough and efficient system of statewide common schools, hard choices must be made,” Justice Resnick wrote.

The plan

        Now the question is what the Supreme Court will think of the what the General Assembly has done.

        The $1.4 billion plan, which does not raise taxes, increases schools' minimum per pupil spending from $4,294 to $4,814 in the 2001-2002 school year. In 2002-2003 spending climbs to $4,949 per student.

        An additional $300 million would help property-poor districts offer programs or services wealthier schools already provide. Up to 489 of the state's 612 school districts get some of this money.

        But is this enough? Republican leaders insist it is.

        “It's a proposal I believe the court can, and hopefully will, endorse,” Mr. Taft said.

        Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery said the state has “a good story to tell” the Supreme Court when oral arguments begin June 20.

        “We have made the case,” Ms. Montgomery said. “The money for schools has been doubled for the last decade; we have the best school facilities plan in the nation.”

Coalition disagrees
        But Bill Phillis, leader of the schools coalition, argues the plan fails on several fronts.

               “When you raise spending some good is going to accrue,” Mr. Phillis said. “I think the original concerns of the court will remain.”

        The coalition will argue the new system still does not end school reliance on property taxes. It also will describe as inadequate funding for gifted students, special education and urban schools.

        Mr. Phillis said a $3.2 billion plan House Republicans advanced in March addressed all those concerns. That's why the coalition agreed to settle the case if it passed.

        The plan fell apart after Mr. Taft withheld his support. The governor said he'd veto a bill that would put thousands of slot machines at Ohio racetracks to provide up to $900 million for schools.

        The main sponsor of the plan, Mr. Householder, declined to compare it to the $1.4 billion measure.

        “They're two very totally different theories,” Mr. Householder said. “Certainly this ($1.4 billion plan) has the strength of both bodies of the legislature and the governor, so it's a good plan.”

Unfunded mandates

        Lawmakers face other problems.

        The Legislative Service Com mission recently released a report that detailed $500 million in unfunded mandates. The Supreme Court last year ordered lawmakers to fund all such mandates.

        The report was released only after Democrats demanded to see it. When asked why it wasn't made public, LSC Director Robert Shapiro questioned the methods of the staff investigator who wrote the report.

        The report aside, Ms. Montgomery said the state's biggest burden will be arguing that school districts do not face a new round of unfunded mandates. The spending plan was accompanied by another bill that enforces new academic standards and testing requirements for schools and students.

        “What we will argue is that it is not an unfunded mandate when you tell a school district, "Here are the standards you must meet,' and then give them adequate overall funding to get the job done,” Ms. Montgomery said.

        While the plan offers substantial sums of money to many suburban and rural schools, Cincinnati Public Schools officials say it's punishing them.

        State estimates show the district's current per pupil spending of $3,138 increasing 2.9 percent in the next school year and 3 percent in 2002-2003.

        CPS Treasurer Mike Geoghegan said that barely keeps pace with inflation.

        “We'd be better off under the old plan,” he said.

        The CPS board recently decided to let its top lawyer file a friend-of-the-court brief objecting to the General Assembly's plan. CPS Counsel John Concannon, has not decided whether he would do that.

        “We'd argue that some of the school districts that benefit from this plan don't need as much money as we do,” Mr. Concannon said.

        Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale, said Republican lawmakers were leery of giving more money to urban school districts, fearing it would be wasted.

        “I happen to believe CPS is the best urban school district in the state of Ohio,” he said. “Other ones that are getting a lot of money are failing miserably.”

        The Ohio Supreme Court is expected to address these concerns quickly. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said a ruling could come on or before July 1.

        Justice Paul Pfeifer said that would give lawmakers as much time as possible to come up with a new plan if the court rejects the one that just passed.

        Mr. Phillis is confident the court will do just that.

        While he dismisses ideas such as closing schools as extreme, he said his group might ask the court to order the General Assembly to fund schools at certain levels until it comes up with a better plan.

        The idea of specific orders — especially one to raise taxes — doesn't sit well with Mr. Finan. And that is where the constitutional crisis creeps in.

        “There is no way, in my opinion, the court could order the General Assembly to do a tax increase,” Mr. Finan said. “There would be people who would come unglued if that happened in this state.”

A case study
        The bottom line is the effect on schools. Though the lawsuit has brought millions to poor districts, officials in those districts say the state still comes up short.

        At Lawrence County's Dawson-Bryant Schools, one of Ohio's five poorest districts, state aid has increased more than 50 percent since 1991. Located near the Kentucky and West Virginia state lines, the district opened a new high school within the past two years.

        That doesn't mean Dawson-Bryant has left its problems behind.

        Superintendent Jim Payne said a recent loss of special-education funds forced him to cut four teachers. Although the state mandates all-day kindergartens it pays for only half.

        When asked if he thinks the legislature and the Supreme Court will end its lawsuit, he's no optimist.

        “I just don't think there is the political will to do what's right for kids,” Mr. Payne said.

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