- If you, like me, were hoping that passage of the new school funding formula—and especially the end of those hated school choice deductions from district finances—would make district treasurers happier than dogs in a butcher’s shop, early indications are that you were mistaken. According to the treasurer of Berea City Schools as quoted in this piece, literally everything about the new status quo is annoying to them, including the fact that “the new formula is based strictly on enrollment – ‘on kids in seats,’ she said -- not on the total number of students who live in the district, which includes those that attend private, charter or other non-public schools.” I wonder how many district staffers and board members from Berea came down to Columbus to advocate before the legislature for this exact change? (Cleveland.com, 11/5/21)
- When is a charter school not just a
reprehensible vampiric drain on district students and fundingcharter school? Seemingly, whenever said school is planning a pricey expansion/glow-up in your city’s hard-hit downtown area. Thus is the current case with Toledo School for the Arts, which is planning to spend nearly $7 million to renovate its existing facility and to buy and fix up an additional building as well. While normally the Blade finds some euphemism to avoid calling the otherwise much-beloved school a charter, they actually lean into it this time, describing TSA “one of Ohio’s most successful charter schools” and noting that it “accepts students based on a lottery system”…as if they truly think that’s a good thing. Will wonders never cease? (Toledo Blade, 11/5/21)
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