- Cheers to Katie Nethers of Cincinnati. When life circumstances required her to leave high school before finishing in 2013, Katie strove to earn her GED. She ended up having to travel to West Virginia to do so because Ohio law required a superintendent sign off on GEDs for people under the age of 19, and her district’s supe wouldn’t sign. But rather than stopping there, she campaigned and testified to change that sign-off requirement (and the minimum age for a GED as well). The changes were signed into law and just went into effect this fall.
- Jeers to kicking the can down the road. The failure of a property tax levy in the Ledgemont school district earlier this month seemed a strong indication that district residents were interested in merging with nearby Cardinal schools—an outcome already favored by both districts’ superintendents and made easier by legislation passed in Columbus earlier this year. However, neither district’s board took the action required of them to set the plan in motion. By voting down a “territory transfer,” elected board members are leaving it up to outsiders—the county ESC and/or the state of Ohio—to actually force the transfer that most folks already want.
- Cheers to the Beavercreek school board, who voted last week to accept as a gift from FedEx (which also earns a cheer) a decommissioned Boeing 727. The intention is to convert the plane to a STEM classroom for students anywhere to visit and study in. “That aircraft is just a bundle of math and science,” said the former educator who is spearheading three such projects going on across the country.
- Jeers to journalistic bias against charter schools. Editors and reporters in Canton and Akron have been relentless critics of charter schools for years. Bad actors should certainly be called out and malfeasance pursued and punished. But when a school is good, reporters should be able to say so honestly and completely—no asterisks, no caveats, no baggage. Both the Canton Repository and the Akron Beacon Journal recently profiled what are by any measure successful charter schools, but both papers layered on their usual anti-charter tropes so thickly that praise for good teachers, administrators, and students was nearly overshadowed by bad actors wholly unconnected with the schools being featured. On the upside, both Canton College Prep and Akron SCOPE Academy are clearly so good that even a shedload of bias can’t dim their light.
