Issue #1. Education Reform.

I believe that the most pressing issue facing the General Assembly is the reform of public education both structurally and financially. The General Assembly has spent large sums of money for new building construction but it still has not fulfilled it’s duty to create a “thorough and efficient” system of public education as required by the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision in DeRolph v. The Board of Education. Although the Supreme Court found our funding system was too dependent on local property taxes resulting in substantial inequities from district to district due to the vast disparities in valuation of property between districts, local schools today are, more than seven years later, more heavily dependent on local property taxes than they were at the time of the DeRolph decision. Legislators need to take this issue much more seriously than they have been and solve it. The residents of our State are irate at the inaction of the legislature. The people of this State deserve more than lip service being given to this problem.

Ohio is a very diverse and complex state making it quite difficult to find a solution to this complex issue. Simplistic “black and white” formulas that mandate all school districts to spend a specific percentage of their budgets on classroom instruction are naïve, threaten our traditional concept of local control of local schools and fail to consider that the needs and problems of big city school districts differ dramatically from those of rural districts. We are not making widgets, we are attempting to provide an excellent education for all our children.

The next General Assembly needs to seriously consider the 18 recommendations of the report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force For Funding Success in our public schools dated February 2005. The task force of approximately 35 highly respected business people, educators, and elected officials worked nearly two years studying the problems, researching what has and what has not worked in other states and in writing its report to the Governor. The time and effort of these dedicated people and the money spent in preparing this report should be given serious consideration.


Issue #2. Reduce Government spending on Medicaid

Currently approximately 40 percent of the entire state budget is spent on Medicaid. Ohio simply cannot continue spending at the current level for this “entitlement program.” We must cut out waste and fraud and purge those from the rolls who are not entitled to receive subsidized medical care designed for our poorest residents.


Issue #3. Tax reform.

While the General Assembly recently passed a tax reform bill which dramatically changes the way that businesses are taxed, it should conduct a thorough study of every department of state government to see where cost saving consolidation can be accomplished, make cuts, remove duplication of effort and adopt a simpler, fairer taxation system which allows Ohioans to retain more of their hard earned dollars. We need legislators who have had real world experience in the private sector and/or in community elected positions who have demonstrated the courage to make difficult decisions during difficult times.