Not this November anyway.

"It is very disappointing," said Bob Greenwood, superintendent of the East Guernsey Local School District, about 85 miles east of Columbus. "We just had $8 million of cuts to balance our budget and are to the point where we can't cut anymore."

Less than six weeks from the Aug. 8 filing deadline, educators pushing a proposed constitutional amendment pulled the plug yesterday because they are nowhere close to collecting the necessary signatures to put the issue on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The Campaign for Ohio's Future has collected only 150,000 of the required 402,276 valid signatures of registered voters.

"It was strictly a matter of time and circumstance," said campaign spokesman Jim Betts.

While most statewide campaigns hire petition circulators, supporters preferred an all-volunteer effort to maximize involvement of the education community, he said.

The petition drive will continue in hopes of reaching the November 2008 ballot. Coalition leaders also will meet later this month with Gov. Ted Strickland, who did not support the proposed amendment, to discuss his campaign pledge to "fix" school funding.

For weeks, members of the 12 education groups backing the proposal have said privately their proposal was dead, at least for this year. Campaign leaders, however, vigorously denied the suggestion. After the coalition's meeting Friday, treasurer David Varda claimed the plan to get on the November ballot was unchanged.

The amendment would "guarantee a high quality education as a fundamental right for Ohio's public schoolchildren" and shift much of the financial burden from local property owners to the state.

News of the about-face was met with mixed reactions by school-district officials who had been collecting signatures.

Greenwood, the East Guernsey superintendent, said with the constitutional amendment on the back burner, he's putting his hope on Strickland to make good on his promise to fix the system.

Newark Schools Superintendent Keith Richards said, "I'm disappointed for the state of Ohio that we're once again going to be waiting for a school-funding solution."

At the same time, he's somewhat relieved because his district has a levy in November, and having both issues on the same ballot would be confusing for voters.

Whitehall School Board President Walter Armes said waiting until the 2008 election won't be as difficult for his district.

"It's not a doomsday scenario. And I doubt very seriously it's a doomsday scenario for anybody in Franklin County," he said.

Armes said the delay gives the governor time to develop his plan, something he's hopeful about given the good will created during recent state budget negotiations between Strickland and legislative leaders.

"Maybe now they can work toward a long-term (school-funding) solution," he said.

Betts said the coalition hopes to participate in the governor's talks as well.

"Assuming that he will meet his campaign pledge to address school funding, we hope to be part of those discussions," Betts said.

The governor, a Democrat, along with many business leaders and Republican leaders in the General Assembly, opposed the constitutional amendment.

Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said the governor prefers a legislative resolution to the issue and has been met with the Ohio Business Roundtable, Ohio Education Association and other stakeholders. The coalition is welcome to participate too, he said.

"The governor's intent is to be inclusive," he said. "From the conversations (the hope is that) a set of consensus reforms emerges."

ccandisky@dispatch.com