Robert Richardson

Grade 12

Ridgewood High School

Free-Roaming Felons

“I solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio, and faithfully to discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives.” These are the words that are spoken by the Ohio Legislators as they are sworn into office. They are also the words spoken by those whom I refer to as “free-roaming felons.” In the State of Ohio, when a person robs another of his possessions and is caught, a punishment is issued based on the value of what he has stolen. If the item has a low monetary value it is considered a misdemeanor offense, and the punishment may be only a warning or community service. Conversely, if the item has great monetary value, such as a vehicle or jewelry, the crime is considered to be a felony, and a heftier punishment is imposed. For this reason, I believe the Ohio Legislators should all be considered felons because they have robbed the children of Ohio of one of their most precious possessions, a quality education. In addition, a secondary charge would be breach of contract. When they utter the above oath they enter into a contract with the citizens of the State of Ohio, agreeing that they will support the Ohio Constitution. That contract has been broken.

Ohio has a system of funding schools based on revenues raised from property tax, as expressed in millage. Millage is defined as a tax rate on property, expressed in mills per dollar of value of the property. The problem with this system is that property in Ohio is worth different amounts in different places. Therefore, a five mill levy raised in area A will raise more money than the same levy raised in area B. What this essentially means is that the Ohio Assembly believes that children attending school in a depressed economic area should receive an education that is less than those children attending in a more financially sound area. This is a clear and evident disregard of the stated intent of the Ohio Constitution which mandates an efficient system throughout the State. How can a system be considered efficient when students in some districts are without the same basic equipment as students in other districts?

In 1991, Dale R. DeRolph filed suit against the State of Ohio stating that the school funding system was unconstitutional. In 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision declaring that the Ohio school funding system was indeed unconstitutional. At the time, the court sited Section II, Article VI of the Ohio Constitution which mandates a thorough and efficient system of schools throughout the State. In both 2000 and 2001, the issue was again brought before the Ohio Supreme Court who again determined that the school funding system continued to be unconstitutional. Although the General Assembly had enacted changes to the school funding system the court believed that what now was in place was a system of “common schools”, but that they continued to fall short of the thorough and efficient system mandated by the Constitution.

The majority of the problem rests in the fact that no one has held the Ohio Assembly accountable for failure to comply with the rulings. The Ohio Supreme Court continues to direct the General Assembly to follow the law they have issued, but they have no power to enforce their decision. The bottom line is: the Ohio Constitution is in place, its tenets have been upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court, and the Ohio General Assembly refuses to follow the law. Therefore, the members of the Ohio General Assembly continue to break the law, are criminals, and need to be held accountable for breaking the law, as are all others who ignore the laws in the State of Ohio. Therefore, I propose that it is time to rein in these free-roaming felons and restore our great state to the ideals which were outlined by our Constitution at its inception.