Petition drive for school-funding cools off? Download petition here

Note from Molly: You can download petitions from: www.rightforohio.org as well as talking points for discussion. Please help with this important issue to better education in Ohio.
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School-funding plan may wait

Backers consider '08 ballot for state amendment

Columbus Dispatch, June 5, 2007

By Catherine Candisky

A constitutional amendment promising to fix Ohio's school-funding system might not be on the November ballot as planned.

Two months before the filing deadline, the education groups pushing the proposal will meet this week to assess the status of their petition drive and fundraising efforts.

Publicly, backers say the plan to put the issue before Ohio voters this fall is unchanged. But privately, many say they might need to wait until November 2008 to give the campaign more time to collect signatures, raise campaign money and build support.

"It's an important meeting in the process," said Fred Pausch of the Ohio School Boards Association, which is backing the proposal.

"We will have to look at the political realities and where the campaign is at."

In a recent e-mail to school superintendents, leaders of Getting It Right For Ohio's Future wrote, "The end of the school year is rapidly approaching and the campaign to collect signatures for the constitutional amendment is in critical need of assessing its current status."

Supporters have until Aug. 8 to submit valid signatures of 402,276 registered voters for the issue to appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Jim Betts, campaign spokesman, insisted the plan for a statewide vote this year is on course.

While many schools desperately need the additional state aid the proposal promises to deliver, some say that waiting until next year would bring the higher voter turnout of a presidential election and feature legislative races on the same ballot.

Gary Allen, president of the Ohio Education Association -- which has committed $2.7 million to the campaign -- said supporters must evaluate the petition drive and fundraising effort before deciding how to proceed. The state's largest teachers union will support the proposal this year or next, he said.

The petition drive "was slowed some," Allen said, because school districts with levies on the May ballot waited until after the primary to begin circulating petition forms.

Of Ohio's 614 school districts, 154 had one or more levy requests on the May 8 ballot. Many school leaders from those districts declined to circulate the petition before the election because they feared it could confuse their voters and undermine the need for additional local revenues.

About 90 districts have passed resolutions supporting the amendment. The measure is opposed by Gov. Ted Strickland, majority Republican leaders in the House and Senate, and the business community.

The amendment would guarantee a "high quality education as a fundamental right for Ohio's public schoolchildren" and shift much of the financial burden from local property owners to the state. The Ohio Board of Education would identify the components and put a price tag on such an education, and the General Assembly would have to fund it.

Betts, the campaign spokesman, said he is still collecting information from district volunteers and does not know how many signatures have been obtained.

The campaign is not using paid petition circulators but is relying on district officials and teachers unions to gather signatures.

"As far as I've heard, it's full-steam ahead," said Pausch, of the school-board association. "But no question we're at a crucial point."

ccandisky@dispatch.com