Speakers
> Senator Jeff Jacobson, Representative Claudette Woodard and Paul Marshall

Monday, January 10, 2005 12:00 PM Fixing Ohio School Finance: A Report from the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Financing Student Success Senator Jeff Jacobson, Representative Claudette Woodard and Paul Marshall Reservation

In
December, after debating more than a year, the 35-member panel
appointed by Gov. Robert Taft to find a solution to Ohio’s nagging
school funding problem issued its recommendations. They call for a
state constitutional amendment that would increase taxes for many
residents and more funding for impoverished districts like Cleveland.
Already, both Democrats and Republicans, including Task Force members,
contend the recommendations have little chance of passing the
Republican-dominated General Assembly. Whether you favor or oppose
higher taxes to pay for schools, it’s clear that the current system,
declared inequitable four times by the Ohio Supreme Court, is failing
our schools and children. Can the Task Force’s recommendations move
Ohio closer to finding an answer? If so, how? Or will it be necessary
to go back to the drawing board?

Task Force Executive Director Paul Marshall will provide a report
on the panel’s findings and insight into the issues members debated.
Task Force member Sen. Jeff Jacobson (R) Dayton and Representative
Claudette Woodard (D) Cleveland Heights will present opposing views.

Moderator: Charlise Lyles, editor of "Catalyst Cleveland," an independent newsmagazine covering urban school reform

Location