- Columbus City Schools is, apparently, facing a budget shortfall within two years, and the initial discussions about solving it involve
closing it down immediately so it can repay lost revenue to the state of Ohiothe elimination of up to 163 positions. Another option would be todownsize operations for more efficiency“get some more revenue” from somewhere. Good call! Although it is unclear at this juncture out of whose derrière that money could possibly materialize. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/22/18)
- The final decision on whether Cincinnati will be home to a Major League Soccer expansion team is still pending, but that doesn’t stop fervid speculation about same. (Nor does it stop me from having to read the sports page, yet again.) Cincinnati City Schools owns some land that the football club may or may not be touting as the future home for its putative pro stadium and it seems as if some behind-the-scenes discussions have already gone on. Either that or the sporty-types are simply figuring that the district will go along with their choice whenever they deign to announce it (shades of the Columbus Crew/Columbus Foundation/Abbott Labs debacle last year). Whichever it is, I can only imagine that the best interests of the district’s students will be the guiding principles for any final decisions thereon. But I could be wrong about that. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 1/22/18)
- Why, I hear you all ask, hasn’t Gadfly Bites been discussing the Biggest Education News Story of the DecadeTM? Because it’s too stupid to spend that much time on. However, when reality occasionally intrudes into the ODE/ECOT debacle, you can count on your humble clips compiler to be there…five days late at a maximum. As we noted on Monday, traditional districts across the state were standing ready to “welcome” the thousands of former ECOT students into their loving clutches—holding wilty flowers, droopy balloons, and tattered cardboard signs that said (I imagine) “Got Education? We do.” But in lovely little Marion, Ohio, district officials were far more realistic about the eventual tiny number of “their” students who they figured would actually “return” from ECOT to the district from which they opted to depart however long ago. Why? Because they had their own online school which (as did others) last year faced the exact same clawback fate as ECOT did and they opted instead to simply close up shop (as did others) immediately. While the district did make good on the moneys requested back by the state, it is clear that most of those Marion students opted for another online school rather than “return” to the district from which they opted to depart however long ago. And so it is that we see another Marion-area online school reporting a sizeable uptick in students looking to enroll with them. A big old “duh” that even your humble clips compiler saw coming from a mile away. Now, whether all those other online schools will actually take as many former-ECOT students who want in is another topic. Which, if put in print, will probably also be stupid. (Marion Star, 1/19/18)
