Change is definitely in our future: throughout the fall election season, we all heard a consistent message: It's time for a change. We're going to see it in spades over the next year or two, both nationally and here in the Buckeye state.

• Author: Benton, Barbara
• Position: Inside THE STATEHOUSE

Some changes may be positive, but others definitely will be painful. On the federal level, President-elect Barack Obama's campaign mantra of "It's time for a change" will likely result in efforts to reform areas ranging from health care to taxation, at a minimum. While Obama targeted numerous areas for change during the campaign period, most changes will be very difficult to achieve in these challenging economic times. Having said that, Obama will face much better odds of enacting his priorities than he would have in prior years due to the stronger Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. It's up to each of us to watch closely and let our federal elected officials know what we think. After all, it's OUR money they're spending, if not our children's and grandchildren's future funds.

In Ohio, calls for change were made also and we will be faced with similar challenges. When he ran two years ago, Gov. Ted Strickland made it clear that he would consider his term in office to be a failure if he didn't reform school funding. Accordingly, Strickland has invested many hours in reaching out to interest groups to develop the best approach. He will likely be presenting his plan to the 128th Ohio General Assembly in February as part of his biennial budget proposal. The State Board of Education pegged the cost to reform Ohio's K-12 education system at $1 billion or more annually in new spending. When you consider that Ohio is facing a $7 billion plus shortfall in the July 2009-June 2011 budget cycle, annually adding $1 billion in additional costs will be extremely challenging. That's not counting the almost $1.3 billion in cuts that were...