Gadfly Bites 10/23/24—Complicated calculus? Downright twisted, if you ask me

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1. Kudos and criticism from me for this public radio piece looking at the impact of massive enrollment losses on Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s facilities and programming. Kudos because it mainly resists blaming charter schools solely for the declines, with smart folks smartly discussing the larger outmigration patterns from the city over the last several decades. Criticism because it allows the simple solution—closing schools and rebalancing students and resources efficiently, which could have been implemented long ago—to be negated by district leaders’ mantra of a “complicated calculus” in doing anything of the sort. The charter school boogieman is, however, strongly invoked as the reason why the district has not closed/sold woefully-underutilized or non-active buildings. It’s not complicated, y’all: Every problem you discuss here—even the possibility of attracting more students than you lose—can be addressed by downsizing and rebalancing your assets and resources. (WYSO-FM, Yellow Springs, 10/22/24)
   
   

2. Nothing but criticism from me for this piece, in which the charter school boogieman is invoked by Dayton City Schools’ superintendent as his explanation for why there was a fight among students at a public library branch last month. Disgusting, disingenuous, and entirely unhelpful given the seriousness of the situation. Especially since other community leaders have some legitimate proposals to give kids more options after school—options which have been sorely lacking for years. As long as district leaders continue to blame the very existence of charter schools for all of their troubles, they will have no incentive to do anything to fix the problems. Which is probably why they say it. (Dayton Daily News, 10/22/24) Luckily, not everyone is fully blinkered by the boogieman. We learn from this piece that charter schools are among the entities taking the lead in repurposing millions of square feet of unused office space in Columbus to new, productive uses. There’s no mention of the difficulty charter operators are often experiencing when trying to get permits for these conversions, but one step at a time I guess. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/23/24)
   
   

3. You know what other entities are taking the initiative in converting dead offices to useful spaces again? Religious groups, according to the Dispatch piece above. All the more disheartening, then, to learn that the Editorial Board of Cleveland.com is dead set against the state giving capital improvement funds to religiously-affiliated schools. (Cleveland.com, 10/23/24)
    
4. Finally today, on a much happier note, new research from Columbia University shows that access to dual enrollment—attending college courses while still in high school—boosts the number of high school grads who go on to college. Even better, Ohio’s numbers (83 percent of dual enrollment students—not including AP/IB takers—go on to attend two- and four-year colleges) are even higher than the national average. Both overall and for low-income students. Wowza! (Cleveland.com, 10/22/24)

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