COLUMBUS — Ohio's historic court battle over education funding focused Monday on two completely different answers to one simple question: Does a $1.4 billion reform plan lawmakers passed go far enough to reduce the gap between the state's rich and poor schools?

        Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery delivered a resounding “yes” on the state's behalf. A 50-page document her office filed with the Ohio Supreme Court says the new plan spends far more than what's needed to create a thorough and efficient system for funding public schools.

        “Today, and for each day hereafter, Ohio's schoolchildren may reap the benefits of a constitutional system of public primary and secondary schools,” she told the court in her legal brief.

        Arguments filed by a coali tion of schools that has twice successfully sued the state answered the question with an equally emphatic “no.”

        It insists that, despite record funding increases over the past decade, this latest plan falls woefully short.

        “Those still in Ohio's schools face yet another year of educational deprivation,” said the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy in School Funding. “This court's or ders have been either blatantly ignored or given mere lip service.”

        At stake is an Ohio Supreme Court decision that will reset the course of the state's education debate. The seven justices will use these arguments — and personal appearances by law yers on Wednesday — to either declare the new system legally sound or to order lawmakers to try again.

        Two 4-3 decisions from the high court, in 1997 and in May 2000, declared the state's funding system unconstitutional because schools rely on property taxes as their main source of money.

        The court also ordered lawmakers to redefine the cost of an adequate education, fund new academic standards and improve the state's school construction program.

        The state's response is a plan that would increase a school district's minimum per pupil spending from $4,294 to $4,814 in the 2001-02 school year. That spending climbs to $4,949 per student in 2002-03.

        An additional $300 million would help property-poor schools offer programs or services wealthier schools already provide.

        Ms. Montgomery said there have been dramatic increases in education funding since the lawsuit began a decade ago.

        In 1991, the state offered a minimum $2,710 per pupil. Annual state funding for schools has increased from $4 billion that year to a projected $7.9 billion within the next two years.

        “Even the most fervent critic of the current system must acknowledge the dramatic change in the education landscape,” Ms. Montgomery told the court.

        The school coalition, which represents more than 500 of Ohio's 612 school districts, argues that the plan actually is worse in some areas.

        As the coalition sees it, the funding plan leaves schools reliant on property taxes, ignores urban school challenges with poverty-stricken students, ignores $500 million in unfunded state mandates on schools, and fails to speed up a program aimed at fixing or replacing run-down school buildings.

        “Virtually every flaw previously identified by the court persists, some now in heightened form,” the coalition wrote.

        That argument was echoed Monday by allied interest groups, including the Ohio Education Association, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, Democratic lawmakers and the League of Women Voters.

        The coalition's challenge also extends to the basic math lawmakers used to come up with their plan's $1.4 billion figure.

        The coalition argues as much as $272 million would go to privately run charter schools and should not be counted. An additional $91 million in state funding comes from a utility tax schools used to collect locally.

        The state also underestimated the per-student cost of increased graduation requirements for high- school students, the coalition said. The $12 per pupil increase the state approved falls short of a coalition estimate of $197 per student.

        As both sides push to convince the justices of their position, they also are ratcheting up the political pressure.

        Instead of simply ordering lawmakers to try again, the school coalition wants the high court to order specific changes.

        The coalition asks the court to appoint a special master or commission that would create a new funding plan and order the General Assembly to pass it. Another option would have the justices file an interim order that forces the state to fund schools at certain levels until lawmakers pass a better plan.

        Coalition leader Bill Phillis said the state must take these steps to “put some teeth” in its orders to the General Assembly.

        “It is now inescapably clear that the state cannot be relied upon to provide the remedy,” the coalition wrote.

        But Ms. Montgomery told the court that solutions to school funding problems should be left up to the legislature.

        “It has been said before but bears repeating that control of the legislative process must remain with the legislature,” Ms. Montgomery wrote.

CPS joins effort to oppose funding plan

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