While most Ohio University students were driving, flying or stumbling back to Athens on Saturday, Ohio celebrated the 10-year anniversary of DeRolph v. State of Ohio, arguably the most pivotal education case for our state since Brown v. the Topeka Board of Education.

I used to be as uninterested and apathetic to that fact as many of you are now. Needless to say, I did not have to fight off the rest of my staff at The Post to cover local education.

But now, in addition to my Spanish minor, I have become fluent in Department-of-education-ese, and I have realized that education stories are some of the most important in the paper. And that’s not just because I write many of them.

DeRolph v. Ohio is a Perry County court case that addressed the school funding system’s reliance on property taxes. The system allows districts with higher property values to collect more money for schools, often leaving schools in poorer districts with less money. Ohio school funding has been ruled unconstitutional four times.

Since DeRolph, problems like phantom revenue have popped out of the woodwork. Phantom revenue is an odd consequence of the taxation system in which school districts lose money when property values increase.

Generating funds for schools in this area has been a struggle, to say the least. Trimble Local School District, one of the poorest in the state, recently escaped a four-year fiscal emergency, meaning its finances were so bad the state had to supervise its recovery. Federal Hocking School District cut 15 positions, entered fiscal watch and has a projected debt of $1.8 million for next year. A fiscal watch indicates the district’s debt is between 8 and 15 percent of its general operating funds.

Athens City School District — considered to be well-off in comparison to other districts in the county — has passed a replacement levy and an income tax to continue normal school functions.

If you think these problems are limited to Athens County, think again. In the November election alone, Ohio schools asked for 206 levies to fund basic operations and 46.6 percent failed, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

That is not to say the state and federal governments have been twiddling their thumbs for the past 10 years. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, every school district receives report cards — indicators of proficiency test scores, graduation and attendance rates. Districts that do not meet state-set standards called adequate yearly progress (AYP) risk intervention from the state, teacher and program cuts or reallocated funds.

In his recent State of the State address, Gov. Ted Strickland proposed increasing school funding to 54 percent of the state’s entire budget by 2009. He also proposed parity aid and poverty assistance to decrease funding differences between “rich” and “poor” districts.

“Many have argued — and the DeRolph decision agreed — an education system primarily dependent on the wealth of the local community is inherently unfair because where you grow up in Ohio should not determine where you end up in life,” Strickland said in the speech.

Now here are three reasons why you should care:

1. On almost every ballot, school districts are asking for money, and as a taxpayer, you should know why.

2. If you are one of the College of Education’s more than 2,000 students, school funding is of the utmost importance for your future profession. The position or program that is cut might be your own.

3. Out of 100 ninth-graders in Ohio, 70 will graduate high school, 40 will go directly to college, 29 will still be enrolled in college as sophomores and 19 will graduate from college, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. It is my sophomore year and you might call me idealistic, but as one of the 29 still here, I feel an obligation to help the other 71 who did not make it because of a lack of money, opportunities or motivation.

So the next time you are flipping through the paper to get to The Verve or the crossword puzzle, stop and read an education article. It’s your money and the country’s children that are at stake.

This commentary represent the views of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Post. Jessie Balmert is a sophomore journalism major and The Post’s education reporter.