It appears that one of Gov. Ted Strickland’s biggest victories — making improvements in Ohio’s public school funding system that has long been declared unconstitutional — may have been only on paper, at least for now.

As Ohio’s leaders remain at odds over how to fix a more than $850 million hole in the two-year budget, the governor and other state Democrats are warning that the money will have to come from education, in part because they feel GOP won’t compromise.

Republicans say these are scare tactics and political games.

Where does the truth lie? Most likely somewhere in the middle.

Both sides are being somewhat truthful and neither side is making enough efforts for bi-partisan cooperation.

And that truth could be a devasting one for Ohio’s school systems from kindergarten through public colleges and universities.

If this money is slashed from education funding, schools would have to make cuts as soon as January. But that will be difficult because many expenses are locked in or span the school-year contract.

And the cuts would likely be even deeper for the 2010-11 school year, forcing layoffs and sacrifices in the quality of Ohio’s education.

Sadly, this situation shouldn’t come as a surprise to many and most certainly not to Gov. Strickland who was warned about this. Essentially, this gigantic gap in the budget is tied to the fact the governor included revenue from video lottery terminals in his budget despite knowing that legal challenges would delay this from happening.

Governor Strickland has talked long and often about fixing Ohio’s education system. He must lead the way in doing that in the short-term and long-term by working to find other solutions.