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Letters to the editor - updated April 3
School districts need to find another source of funding The court system and Ohio legislature continue to let down the people. There is already a provision and law to how schools should be funded. I believe that in 1845 the Columbus school board passed a provision to tax parents who have children in the school system, only if the funds from the state were insufficient. Parents with children in school should be taxed. People without children should not pay. I am taxed and our taxes have increased about 75 percent in the past 10 years. I am 84-years-old. Why, why, why must I continue to pay? In 2001 a case was filed in Perry County, which was settled in 2002. The court found it unconstitutional for schools to receive funding through property owners. This case was then appealed and sent to the Ohio Supreme Court. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled the school funding unconstitutional. The court justice referred the matter to legislature to pass a law mandating schools find funding from another source. Our legislators have yet to take action. Yet the school systems take advantage of the legislators’ failure to comply with court rulings. I wrote the former Franklin County auditor and asked him to stop taking school taxes from my property taxes. I received a letter stating there was nothing he could do except continue to deduct school taxes under current rules. These are rules, not laws. We must call our state officials and push for a better way of funding our school system, other than being blackmailed. They blackmail children and make threats to cancel certain activities and charge large fees on top of property taxes. Start calling your legislators and the governor’s office. Let’s nip this unlawful robbery in the bud now. Call and keep calling. This is election year, if they don’t respond, take care of it in November, vote them all out. Don’t be a stooge. Call, call, call, and keep calling. We need some new blood in there, anyway.
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