Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Saturday, November 11, 2006
A return of the school funding wars?
(Governor-elect Ted Strickland)
For a guy who didn’t talk much about education during the campaign, governor-elect Ted Strickland sure is talking a lot about education now.
Immediately after his victory, Strickland called for renewed efforts to make education effective and affordable from pre-school through college.
By the end of the week he was even more ambitious, calling for a new system of school funding for Ohio and invoking the four Ohio Supreme Court decisions in making his case for a fundamentally different system that the legislature largely ignored in the 1990s.
One way to look at this is that there is little Ted Strickland alone can do to change school funding. The legislature still remains solidly Republican, and legislative leaders have exhibited no urgency for a dramatic funding overhaul.
On the other hand, the governorship is a powerful platform from which Strickland can bring pressure on lawmakers if he can make a convincing case for change to regular Ohioans. There has been no strong voice for funding changes in any of the state’s major elected offices during the era of court decisions. Of course, what’s lacking so far is a proposal of any substance. Only when we see the details of how Strickland might like to fund schools can Ohioans really begin to weigh the merits of radical change.
Interestingly, Strickland lobbies for school funding change by citing the Supreme Court’s orders for change. But would today’s court make the same decisions? After last week’s election it’s now seven Republicans on the court, so probably not.
(Image credit: AP)
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