Thursday, September 16, 1999
Sen. Finan critical of consultants
Hiring called premature, a waste during school funding appeal
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Ohio has no business studying new ways to fund public schools while the state's lawyers defend the current system in court, Senate President Richard Finan said Wednesday.
The Evendale Republican blasted the Ohio Department of Education for hiring consultants to suggest alternative methods to raise and distribute money to schools. The consultants are being paid $316,500 under a pair of contracts revealed Wednesday by The Cincinnati Enquirer.
“I don't know what they are thinking,” Mr. Finan said. “This is a total waste of money.”
State lawmakers overhauled the system last year under orders from the Ohio Supreme Court. Critics, though, say the General Assembly failed to consider everything children need to know when it crafted a new way to pay for their education.
Susan Tave Zelman, Ohio's superintendent of public instruction, told The Enquirer it already may be time to change the system, even though the state is paying a private attorney $125 an hour to defend it in
court.
With approval from the Ohio State Board of Education, Dr. Zelman hired five researchers from Cleveland State University, Indiana University and Pennsylvania State University to recommend other options. One of the experts is asking legislators, teachers, administrators and community leaders for advice.
The group is to present its plan early next year, around the same time the Ohio Supreme Court is expected to decide whether the General Assembly fixed the school-funding system.
“These options will provide an integrated package of revenue and expenditure plans for funding an adequate education system,” according to a copy of one of the contracts obtained by The Enquirer under Ohio's public records law.
Mr. Finan said the study is “totally irrelevant” to the General Assembly but could undermine the state's defense of the current system.
The Education Department may have avoided earlier scrutiny of the new study because the contracts were signed July 15, after lawmakers had approved the state budget and adjourned for the summer. Because the contracts are with a state university, state law didn't require the department to seek approval from the state Controlling Board, a panel that reviews spending requests.
In February, Judge Linton D. Lewis Jr. of Perry County Common Pleas Court ordered the state to try again to fix the system, but the Ohio Supreme Court stayed his decision while the state appeals.
On the same day the state Board of Education approved Dr. Zelman's request for another review of the funding formula, the panel of 10 elected and eight appointed members voted to support the state's appeal of Judge Lewis' ruling.
Sue Westendorf, the board's vice president, said she didn't see any contradiction in approving both plans.
“We think we should be constantly reviewing our programs,” said Ms. Westendorf, an appointed member from Napoleon.
Melanie Bates, an elected board member from Cincinnati, said the board supported the appeal in an attempt to repair fractured relations with lawmakers. Revelations about the scope of the Education Department's study could further damage those relationships.
“If the court rules against the state, and I think it will, we will have a head start on trying again to fix the system,” Ms. Bates said.
Gov. Bob Taft interpreted the study from a different perspective. “I believe we've got a system that is constitutional,” Mr. Taft said. “But we should always be looking to improve it.”
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