COLUMBUS — A court-appointed mediator on Thursday declared the state's school-funding talks dead, meaning the constitutionality of Ohio's education system is back before the Ohio Supreme Court.

        “While the parties have worked hard and been cooperative with me in every way, I must report that my mediation has not produced a resolution,” Howard Bellman, a lawyer based in Madison, Wis., said in a three-sentence report to the court.

        “Thank you for the confidence that has been expressed by my appointment. I am very sorry that I could not achieve the desired end,” Mr. Bellman wrote.

        The Supreme Court ordered the talks in November to try to settle a lawsuit filed in 1991 by the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, a group of about 500 schools. The suit, named for Perry County student Nathan DeRolph, argues that Ohio's school-funding system favors rich districts over poor.

        Negotiations began in December.

        Thursday was the deadline for Mr. Bellman to report on the talks' status. He did not ask for an extension.

        “The parties have very deep-seated principles about educational policy and about the roles of the various institutions of government,” Mr. Bellman said in an interview. “They also have a considerable history of conflict over that.

        “I think the combination of the effects of that history and the depths of their commitment to the principles just overwhelmed my capacity to extricate them from all of that,” he said.

        The talks' failure puts the issue back before the court, which must now rule again on the state's funding plan.

        The court has twice ruled against the state's plan. In a third ruling in September, the court said the plan would be constitutional with additional spending.

        The state asked the court to reconsider after estimates of the additional spending hit $1.2 billion a year.

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