Could this happen in Ohio ........

http://www.wftv.com/news/21654818/detail.html




ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Some Orange County parents say their children are getting such a poor education they're suing the state legislature and Department of Education. The parents told Eyewitness News that lawmakers are violating the constitution by spending too little money on education.

Florida's constitution orders lawmakers to fund education as a paramount duty and yet Florida ranks near the bottom of the nation in per student spending. Parents like Linda Kobert are livid.
"The most dangerous animal is a mother bear. And what we are doing is protecting our children and the rest of the children in the state," Kobert said.

She and other local parents sued state leaders to try to force them to spend more money on schools.

“Why is it that no one seems concerned with obeying our constitution? This is something the courts will have to decide," education advocate Kathleen Oropeza said.

The state legislature changed its spending formula, pushing more of the burden to local governments and, with shrinking tax collections, local governments are strained. When federal stimulus dollars run out, more schools could close. Kathleen Oropeza says that can not happen.

"When the coffers were full, they didn't do what they were supposed to do. We were still $3,000 below the national average," she said.

The idea of suing state government to fund education isn't new. People in Maryland sued their legislature in 2002 and, six years later, Maryland lawmakers were forced to spend more money on education. Oropeza hopes the suit with her name on it will provide the same results no matter how long it takes.

"As long as there are kindergartners rolling into these elementary schools, it's never too late. They need us," Oropeza said.

The money spent per student in Orange County has dropped a lot in just the past year. Once you account for the federal stimulus money and adjustments from lawmakers, the amount spent per student drops from $7,309 to $5,634 per student.

Even though Florida is the fourth most-populated state, it is the least-spent per student in the nation, with the exception of Utah.

Copyright 2009 by wftv.com.

Suing the state may provide more money to finance per pupil education for the folks in Florida, but we all know that quantity of money doesn't trump quality of content. We have poured millions into the Middletown school system and the performance isn't close to what it was years ago. Just look at the test scores the last ten years. The social structure of this town has changed over the years. The town use to be more proud, middle working class with a touch of upper class sprinkled in. These working middle class/upper class folks encouraged the kids, supported the kids, had high expectations and oversaw the homefront on homework and report card grades because they wanted a better life for the kids than what they had. Now, we have a different mindset in town.(country) The parents are both working, sometimes two jobs each with no time other than to eat sleep and work. No time to pay attention to the kids school performance. The kid is on their own. We also have some of the parents of the 2009 version of Middletown who don't care enough to oversee their kids educational effort because they're too involved with their own problems with drugs, no job, no hope, no future themselves, constantly transient-no home base. Sad state of affairs, socially, for this town.(and nation) It isn't helping this town either, with the current leaders wanting to grow this mindset by creating the low income, welfare theme, fostered by Section 8 overabundance. They're just adding to the problem. JMO