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- The unthinkable happened on Monday: No clips worth paying attention to. Sad. (Particular apologies to all of my highly-invested subscribers—you know who you are. Hopefully you found some leaves to rake or Halloween candy to test out using your additional free time that day.) We are back today, kind of where we left off on Friday. That is, our Aaron Churchill being quoted in a piece about the state of Ohio’s voucher programs. Also the same as Friday’s piece: This feels to me nicely calm and balanced. I especially appreciate, as journalist Eileen McClory often provides in her work, the inclusion of local private school leaders in the discussion. (Dayton Daily News, 10/29/24)
- Not to cause any concern to Aaron, who I maintain is the foremost expert on Ohio school funding anywhere in the state, but there appears to be someone who might like to knock him off his pedestal if possible. And although WOSU-FM’s “resident education funding expert” Anna Staver is clearly armed with some solid knowledge of the topic, her cake analogy is (shall we say) over-egged in this piece. And even worse, she doesn’t use her knowledge to actually answer the question posed in the headline. Maybe next time. (WOSU-FM, Columbus, 10/29/24)
- Maybe I need to be careful of competition too. Frank O’Linn, Superintendent of Schools for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, displays a hitherto unknown penchant for snark as he discusses the state of Ohio’s voucher programs in this piece—dropping truths and busting myths, with an Austin Powers-related throughline that never falters. Inspired, baby! Yeah! (Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, 10/28/24)
- Finally today: The headline of this piece—“Seeking to better a Canton neighborhood, starting with its children”—is good. As are the plans for an early childhood center that are discussed within the piece. However, while I read the phrase “any child living in the Gibbs neighborhood will have access” to the new center, I am struck by a lot of exclusivity in the discussion focused around students attending Canton City Schools. A quick map search shows lots of charter and private schools nearby. I sure hope I’m not reading more into the words of center administrators and community leaders than what was truly meant—that “any child” truly does mean “any child”, and that where one’s family chooses to attend school won’t exclude them from services that should indeed be offered to “all”. (Ideastream Public Media, 10/28/24)
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