Gadfly Bites 10/30/20 – Ersatz

1. Our own Aaron Churchill was large and in charge on the commentary page of Cleveland.com today, talking about the Cleveland-specific findings from our recent charter school quality report. It was one of the cities with strong achievement data in both math and ELA, and the piece included numerous examples of high-performing charter schools in the area. Awesome! (Cleveland.com, 10/30/20) Not to be outdone, Aaron’s boss Chad Aldis is quoted in this national piece looking at the probability of state testing happening in Ohio in the spring. Right now, the only option for testing is in-person. Unfortunately, the first example of such—third grade reading tests being conducted right now across the state—is not finding a lot of takers among those whose students are not learning in-person at least a couple of days per week. Ruh roh. (The 74, 10/29/20)
    
2. You know how you can just tell who is going to be interviewed in a piece simply by the slant of the headline? (No? Just me then? Perhaps I’ve been doing this clips gig too long.) Well, this is one of those pieces. The topic: what else but school funding? (WCPO-FM, Cincinnati, 10/28/20)
   
   

3. The principal of Marshall High School, a dropout recovery school in Middletown, Ohio, published a great op-ed this week. He tells of his path to education through his own upbringing, honoring teachers who helped him through tough times. The care and support he and his staff show for Marshall students is to make sure that they have all the support they need to complete high school…even if their previous schools have let them down. Nice. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/28/20)
    
4. In case you hadn’t seen it yet, the incipient I Promise athletic facility is sooooo pretty. You can check out new details and some beautiful renderings of the parking-garage-turned-sports-palace here. (Akron Leader, 10/29/20)
   
   

5. In whipsaw news: Columbus City Schools this week worked out an “agreement” with its teachers union regarding the shape of learning for the remainder of the semester. Which means that pretty much everyone will remain learning remotely until mid-January at the earliest, except for certain career tech students. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/28/20) Specifically, a group of more than 900 students with special needs who were also due to return in-person/hybrid on Monday have had that plan kiboshed by the “agreement” with less than five days’ notice. (ABC6, Columbus, 10/29/20) Meanwhile, the City of Columbus has basically created a system of ersatz schools using CARES Act money and the kindness of churches and community members. While the mayor states that “[s]tudents need more than classroom instruction to succeed,” the only thing missing from these so-called “learning extension” places is teachers, from what I can tell. Why, I have to wonder, is it safe for kids and adults to congregate in these unlicensed places for hours on end and not in the school buildings? And aren’t we still paying for those school buildings as they sit idle and pay others to house our students? (Columbus Dispatch, 10/29/20) Meanwhile meanwhile, the state has basically created an ersatz voucher program—soon to be providing $1,500 renewable grants for families of students with special needs (and financial hardship) to access “educational services” in support of their IEPs. As with the above, it seems that accessing services through Learning Aid Ohio is perfectly safe in-person (LAO’s website says they are currently “only adding learning providers who are able to provide in-person services”). And last I checked, the special education allocation was still flowing to schools across the state for just this kind of thing? (WCPO-TV, Cincinnati, 10/29/20)
    
6. I don’t know where this last clip sits in relation to the others, but there seems to me to be some synergy. The state has dropped its planned appeal of the school district territory transfer law ruling from back in September. In that case, the judge ruled not on the merits of the law but on the fact that the law was added to the state budget and thus violated the state’s “one-subject” rule. The legislature could always decide to do a stand-alone bill are include it with another piece of legislation more closely-related bill. But I am left wondering what happens to those other territory transfers that actually happened under this law until a new law is passed. (Canton Repository, 10/29/20)

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