Republicans and their oaths of office

Mr. Batchelder will soon be reciting the oath of office as a newly elected representative. In that oath he will " . . . solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Ohio . . ."
He does not have the right to decide which laws he will support and which ones he chooses to ignore. For 12 long years the Republicans have thumbed their collective noses at the Ohio Supreme Court and the citizens of Ohio. The Republicans have not worked to form a legal method of funding public education. To the contrary they have created charter schools that are siphoning public dollars off into the bank accounts of corporate diploma mills. In addition, not only have the Republicans not reduced the reliance on property taxes to fund education, they have made it worse. Therefore schools and townships, for example, are forced to return to the voters more often than ever. Ohio’s voters spoke very loudly in the last election. Unlike his predecessor Mr. Batchelder has the opportunity to listen to the Supreme Court and to the electorate and not violate his promise to follow the Ohio Constitution. Nonfeasance is defined as the failure to perform an act that is either an official duty or a legal requirement. Betty Montgomery as Ohio Attorney General chose to look the other way and not hold her Republican cronies responsible for failing to perform their collective duty to perform the legal requirement given them in the DeRolph decision. New Attorney General Marc Dann and Governor Ted Strickland must hold the Legislature responsible. If they do then Ohio’s schools and local governments will benefit and the reliance on property taxes will be lessened. We all need to be Argus-eyed from day one and hold those elected accountable for their decisions.

Dave Osborne