Ohio Constitution, Article VI, Section 2 (1851)
The constitutional source of Ohio’s school funding obligation, adopted with the 1851 Constitution: the General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation or otherwise, as will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state, and no religious or other sect shall have any exclusive right to or control of any part of the school funds of this state. verified
legislation/ohio-constitution-article-vi-section-2 · 5 nodes point here
Two features of the text do most of the work in the litigation that follows. The duty is laid on the General Assembly specifically, which is why DeRolph ran against the State and not against districts or the Department of Education. verified And the phrase “throughout the state” is what converts an adequacy standard into a statewide one — a system can be thorough and efficient in Upper Arlington and not be thorough and efficient throughout the state. That reading is the hinge of DeRolph I. inference
The second clause, barring sectarian control of school funds, is a live question again: it is among the grounds raised against the EdChoice scholarship programs. open
Properties
| Designation | Ohio Const. art. VI, sec. 2 |
|---|---|
| General Assembly | Constitutional Convention of 1850-51 |
| Signed | 1851-06-17 |
| Effective | 1851-09-01 |
| What it did | Imposes on the General Assembly a duty to secure by taxation or otherwise a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state, and bars any religious or other sect from exclusive right to or control of any part of the school funds. |
| Vetoes | Not applicable. |
| Effect on accountability | None. The section's two clauses, as the description above gives them, lay a duty on the General Assembly and bar sectarian control of school funds; neither names a measure of schools, a rating, or a consequence attached to one. inference What answerability the text creates runs to the legislature and is enforced by the courts, which is what DeRolph did — a different mechanism from the regime this property records. |
Where this appears on the site
The pages outside the corpus that link here, and the section of each the link sits in.
Links
| Instance of | Legislation |
|---|---|
| Establishes standard | Thorough and Efficient |
| Imposes duty on | Ohio General Assembly |
Pointed at by
| Adequacy | Grounded in |
|---|---|
| Equity | Grounded in |
| Thorough and Efficient | Grounded in |
| EdChoice Constitutional Challenge (Franklin County, 2025) | Applies |
| Casino Tax — County Student Fund | Constrained by |