By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Signs of William Van Auken and his wife, Sandra reflect the prevailing sentiment of the crowd at a rally Tuesday to protest cuts in state school funding at the Statehouse in Columbus. They are teachers at Norton Middle School in Northeast Ohio. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

COLUMBUS - Carrying signs and chanting "Save our future," hundreds of students, parents and educators from school districts across the state rallied at the statehouse Tuesday to protest school funding cuts.

The rally gave students such as 17-year-old Chris Greenlee a chance to voice frustration with their schools' financial situation. The junior from Coventry Local Schools, near Akron, said lack of funding forced the district to cut bus service, raise lunch prices and make students pay to play sports. He chose to drop baseball to pay for wrestling.

"We're pretty much flat broke," he said, holding a sign saying, "Hey Yo, Give Us Dough."

The hour-and-a-half-long rally included speeches by legislators, teachers, and event organizer Mary Ann Isak, the school board president of the Norton city schools in Summit County.

"We are here for one purpose and one purpose only - our children," Isak said. Among the crowd were about a half-dozen administrators from Edgewood Schools, a Butler County district with about 3,400 students located about halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton.

Lawmakers have been too slow to fix the school funding system, which has been ruled unconstitutional, said John Thomas, the district's director of community relations.

"This is dragging on way too long," he said. "We need to make a change. What that change is, I'm not sure. But something needs to be done."

Many at Tuesday's rally criticized Gov. Bob Taft's move this month to cut $140 million in state aid from schools and universities in an effort to balance the budget. Greater Cincinnati schools will lose about $16.5 million.

The rally attracted representatives from about 40 of the state's 612 public school districts. Organizers speculated that the heightened terrorism alert and preparations for war in Iraq reduced participation.

By contrast, the Kentucky state capitol in Frankfort saw its biggest rally in 10 years when about 21,000 teachers, students and parents turned out last month to urge legislators not to cut education. After the Columbus rally, Edgewood Superintendent Tom York said he was disappointed with the turnout. "It's going to take everyone standing shoulder to shoulder out there to make a difference," York said.

A handful of lawmakers did speak at the rally, saying more needs to be done for education.

The governor did not speak, but his office released a statement saying rally participants should encourage their representatives to support the budget he is proposing for 2004-2005, which would increase school spending about 7 percent.

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com