Mayors take the lead on school funding in Ohio

With little or no action by the Republican led state government over the past 10 years, Mayors of Ohio's cities are finding that they have little or no choice but to take the lead in the effort to find solutions to our school financing dilemma which has continued to see the property tax as the mainstay of local school revenues.

The Ohio Mayors' Education Roundtable was formed in 2004 and has grown in two years to include the mayors of Ohio's 21 largest cities, school superintendents and several educational groups which is a measure of the frustration with the seeming inability of Ohio's governmental leaders to resolve the funding issue.

These mayors are on the front line of this effort as they recognize the major impact of school quality on their local economies and they also see the ongoing trend of unfunded mandates in education being passed down to local entities.

It is encouraging to see some leadership being shown on this issue, as four times within the past decade, Ohio's Supreme Court has ruled our funding formula as flawed and unconstitutional. At the same time, we have seen little or no action from the majority in Columbus. And now that same majority campaigns for re-election, promising more of the same for Ohio's voters.

A major objective of the Mayors' Roundtable is to address property tax concerns with a proposed amendment to qualify for the ballot in November 2007. Hopefully this will spur some action on the part of our state leaders to take on this issue, instead of continually pushing it off into the future.