COLUMBUS, Ohio – Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart achieved pop culture immortality 50 years ago when he offered this unusual definition of what constitutes hardcore pornography: “I know it when I see it.”

Stewart’s ruling illustrates that it can be tricky to come up with a practical, working definition for words that seem to have a straightforward meaning.

A group of Ohio lawmakers understands this dilemma and says an ambiguous phrase in the state constitution has too often resulted in crucial education policy decisions being made by judges, instead of by elected representatives of the people.

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The constitutional phrase in question – which dates back to 1851 – requires the legislature to create a “thorough and efficient” system of public schools, Cincinnati.com reports.

What a “thorough and efficient” school system looks like in practice is obviously open to debate, which it has been. Cincinnati.com reports the less-than-clear phrase led to a 12-year court battle beginning in 1991 that ultimately ended with the Ohio Supreme Court ruling that the state’s school funding system was unconstitutional.

Chad Readler, chairman of the education subcommittee of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission, has proposed revising the state constitution to make it crystal clear that the legislature alone is responsible for the “organization, administration and control of the public school system,” Cincinnati.com reports.

“With respect to ‘thorough and efficient,’ it has been utilized in ways to take education policy disputes and debates from the halls of the legislature — where I think they should lie — to the courts,” Readler explained.

It’s believed the new language would allow school officials to innovate in how they deliver education to students – such as through online learning – without worrying about legal challenges from the state teachers union, for example, that has a vested financial interest in maintaining the status quo.

“We want to make sure we don’t do anything in the constitution that hampers teachers and schools,” Republican Sen. Bill Coley said.

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True to form, leaders of the Ohio Education Association – the state’s largest teachers union – have come out swinging against the proposed constitutional change that would take “the courts out of the equation.” OEA leaders know that it’s much easier to get a big K-12 funding increase approved by one judge than by dozens of elected and accountable lawmakers. (The ongoing K-12 funding battle in Kansas demonstrates this reality.)

Ohio public education apologist William Phillis argues that removing the “thorough and efficient” clause would result in “no standard in the constitution” of what a state-provided education should include.

“ … (I)f the state is merely required to provide education, there’s no way to challenge whether the state is meeting its responsibility,” Phillis said.

Actually, just the opposite seems to be true. If lawmakers are fully in control of the state’s education system, then voters will be able to “challenge” their stewardship of K-12 schools and hold them accountable every two years.

The proposal to amend the Ohio constitution is still a long way from passing, and the opposition seems pretty formidable.

But at least Ohio leaders have initiated the conversation. And it’s an important one to have every century-and-a-half or so.