OHIO — It’s been over two decades since the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the state’s school funding formula was unconstitutional. While the current legislature has been hopeful they could get a bill ready to pass this year, there’s still a ways to go.  

What You Need To Know

  • Rundown schools and lack of funding to fix them, along with improperly funding education, sparked the 1991 lawsuit 

  • DeRolph's family would take center stage after his son Nate shared the story of taking a test in a closet because there weren't any desks or chairs in the classroom to do use 

  • Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1997 against the state indicating that Ohio's elementary and secondary schools were neither thorough, nor efficient

  • The court also ruled the state should reduce its dependence on property taxes and overhaul the entire system 
  • Four additional court decisions on the same matter were handed down with the last being in 2002

A tour around the state through pictures and the memory of Bill Phillis only begins to tell the story of just how bad of shape Ohio schools were in 20 years ago.

“I actually traveled millions of miles across the state. And I saw decrepit buildings — terrible buildings,” Phillis said.

That included buildings with no bathrooms, no running water and coal bins that had been turned into classrooms. Back then, Phillis had already finished up his time at the Ohio Department of Education as Assistant Superintendent of Public instruction. He’d started working as the executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding. 

Seeing the severity of the problems and understanding the state only set aside 34.5% of its budget for K-12 funding was a problem for Phillis. That, plus the fact that there was no viable funding formula to educate students. So, he helped to lead the way by filing a lawsuit in 1991 against the state. With a slew of plaintiffs, the suit argued that the state didn’t provide adequate funding or a thorough and efficient education system. 

The DeRolphs would be the poster family for the case. That’s in part because of their son, Nate, 15, had a story to tell at the time while enrolled in the Northern Local School District in Perry County. His dad Dale remembers it all too well.

“When my older son Nate came home one day and said he had to take a test basically sitting in a closet because there was no table or desk for him to sit at, it became pretty obvious that finances need to be somehow improved. Well, I remember him thinking that it was kind of funny. You know, he was a 15-year-old boy," Dale said. "I had to sit in the closet. Well, it wasn't funny to old dad."

It would be years before the suit would be heard and decided on by the Ohio Supreme Court, but things changed in 1997. 

“We got a judgment from the Ohio Supreme Court on March 24, 1997," Phillis said. "The court said that Ohio's elementary and secondary schools are neither thorough, nor efficient. The court didn't order a particular remedy. But what the court said was that the system must undergo a complete systematic overhaul.”

An overhaul meant fixing the funding formula to determine how much it really cost to educate a child and reducing the heavy dependence on property tax, but there was a problem. 

"I can still remember on the day that the decision was handed down. There were some legislators there who said, 'Well, since we don't have them, since we're not going to be policed. we're not going to do anything,'" DeRolph recalled.

In and out of the courts until 2002 and four more decisions on the same issues, the needle of change had barely moved. To the state’s credit, Phillis said the case did spur some movement with more funding going to K-12 schools.

“We have over 1,200 new buildings in this state, as a result of DeRolph. Now, we have to understand that those 1,200 new school buildings probably replaced 2,500 old, decrepit buildings (and) school districts," Phillis said.

And while he says the state is still heavily dependent on property tax today as it was back in 1991 when the DeRolph case was filed, some serious attempts to fix the funding formula in 2007-08 and then over the last three years has taken place. Both DeRolph and Phillis are pleased to see how far legislators have come and hope they’ll see what they fought so hard for soon.

The school DeRolph’s son attended was rebuilt about 15 years ago. DeRolph is still actively involved and currently sits on the Northern Local School Board in Northeast Ohio and serves as an education advocate. Phillis continues his work at the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding.

As for the Fair School Funding Bill, it passed the Ohio House with large bipartisan support. It currently sits in the Ohio Senate where just a few hearings on the bill have taken place.