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- In case you missed it yesterday, Fordham’s Chad Aldis was one of the guests on All Sides with Anna Staver, talking about chronic absenteeism in Ohio schools for a little bit. (WOSU-FM, Columbus, 1/16/24) A bipartisan bill, which had a hearing in a House committee yesterday, aims to lower absenteeism rates by providing payment to students for their school attendance. It’s a slightly different definition of “compulsory” than the one I am familiar with, but I guess a whole lotta stuff has changed over the last few years. And as one of the sponsors reasons: It’s better to invest in a culture of attendance than to pay the long-term cost of absenteeism and dropping out of school. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 1/15/24) I, as I know you have figured out already, have no solution to the problem. But I do have some thoughts. (Oh dear.) As touched on briefly in the All Sides discussion, absenteeism is up everywhere—cities, suburbs, and rural areas—but the causes of poor school attendance differ greatly from school to school and family to family. What connects them all? To me, it seems that school (and education in general) has become less important across the board than…well…almost everything. Vacations, family obligations, work, health concerns, everything. The message seems very clear to me, and it has been heard loud and clear by everyone, including the adults that run our schools. Even the potential overload of one’s sewer system can be a contributing factor for adults cancelling school (shut down, lights off, locked tight) these days. Until that mindset is permanently eradicated—perhaps pay for attendance can be part of the solution—and education attains a higher level of importance than it holds right now, I say there is little hope of changing the numbers very far. (Canton Repository, 1/17/24)
- I’m sure that Dayton City Schools will be lauded for this proposal to create a new arts-centric elementary school, despite steadily losing students for decades and putting off the closures and consolidation of buildings for efficiency’s sake for the same amount of time. It is interesting to note that there is no hurry for this new school, which will likely mean that the new capacity will not be available until after hundreds more kids have already left for other options and the baby bust has moved several years further along. Not exactly visionary. (Dayton Daily News, 1/16/24) Similarly, I am sure that advocates will be roasted for supporting this proposal to give private and charter schools access to the state’s Classroom Facilities Assistance Program. It’s there to help schools add classroom space or entire new buildings, but is restricted to traditional districts only—even if they are losing enrollment. Meanwhile, there are a lot of charters and private schools that are on the grow across the state without the ability to access these dollars. Seems wrong, right? (Center Square, 1/17/24)
- I’m not exactly sure what the editorial board of the Toledo Blade is trying to say here, so carefully is this piece worded, but it feels like its members are at least cautiously supportive of Governor DeWine for both the installation of science of reading as the law of the land and the creation of the DEW to expedite all aspects thereof. Despite the local elected school board’s stand on both those issues. But I could be reading it wrong. (Toledo Blade, 1/16/24)
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