Dems push their school ideas, saying Senate proposals unacceptable

Mike Lafferty / June 2, 2009

Ohio Senate Democrats today said Republicans want to step backward in education, that Gov. Ted Strickland and the Ohio House have identified what needs to be done in schools and how to do it, that the evidence is clear on the issues, and that more money for education -- when the economy revives -- will be there, too.

Standing before a "count up" clock depicting the time since the first DeRolph Supreme Court decision in 1997 found the state's school-funding system unconstitutional (it's been 12 years and two months), they said Democrat plans are vital to push Ohio education in this new century. A Republican proposal to study education needs is not necessary.

"We can have one report after another. They add up to a mountain of paper," said Sen. Tom Sawyer (D-Akron), who added the evidence for the Democratic program is clear. Republicans have attacked the governor's so-called "evidence-based" education plans as unreal.

But Democrats said it's Republican opposition to their proposals that is not realistic. "The real tragedy we face, if we simply return to that which is comfortable, is the tragedy of aiming too low," Sawyer said.
 
Republicans in the Senate, fearing recession-wracked Ohio does not have enough money to pay for state needs, including those in education, have thrown out the House-passed Democrat plans. The House budget passed shortly before the administration announced that, due to lagging state tax revenues, the current state budget has a shortfall of

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Dems push their school ideas, saying Senate proposals unacceptable