- We start this week with a profile of the new Ohio Senate President, focusing almost entirely on education issues past, present and future. Not everyone had nice things to say, but there were lots of comments from other legislators (and our own Chad Aldis too) about how thoughtful, detail-oriented, and refreshingly compromise-y said new Ohio Senate President has always been. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/25/21)
- Nearly ten months after remote-only learning became the primary method of instruction across Ohio, students at the Graham School here in Columbus received a vital charitable donation that allowed students to have laptops of their own. While that may seem a long time to operate remotely while using borrowed computers, remember that charter schools do not have access to the same reservoirs of money that big urban districts do. (NBC4 News, Columbus, 1/22/21) Speaking of which, the extremely-deep-pocketed Columbus City Schools was able to provide every student with their own laptop pretty quickly after remote-only learning commenced last March. And now a bit of change from between district couch cushions ($100K)—along with funding from the city and some philanthropy—has helped fund a group of liaisons to help connect non-English speaking families with tech help on those laptops and other services they might need. This is all good, and perhaps is another of those pandemic-influenced innovations that will stick going forward. But I can’t help wondering why the one Somali family featured here seems to have been muddling through for a very long time before the coming of SARS-CoV-2 without having access to someone who actually spoke their language. Hasn’t Columbus been one of the largest Somali immigrant hubs in the country for like ten years? (Columbus Dispatch, 1/24/21)
- In case you were worried about Columbus and other school districts running out of money: never fear. State sales tax revenue is beating the dire pandemic-influenced estimates of six month ago and thus $160 million in previous K-12 education cuts will be reversed. So saith Governor DeWine. (Cleveland.com, 1/22/21) Something else the governor has decreed more of: his stay-at-home order. In central Ohio, that means the overnight curfew for residents will be extended to at least February 6. (NBC4 News, Columbus, 1/22/21) However, this change did not deter Columbus City Schools from restarting sports competitions as promised on January 25. This date was chosen, we were told, because the original stay-at-home order was to end the day before. And since it didn’t, it seems like sportsball should have held up too. Shouldn’t it? The reasons which trumped the health warning this time around are kinda spelled out in this piece if you’re interested. (NBC4 News, Columbus, 1/24/21)
- Meanwhile, a couple of state lawmakers are introducing a bill to cancel state testing for this school year. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/22/21)
- We end today with a Tale of Two Districts. Despite the pandemic, it is still the best of times in Grandview Heights City Schools, according to its superintendent and a slew of data he provided… (ThisWeek News, 1/22/21) …and it still seems like the same old worst of times in Youngstown City Schools, if the comments of the new president of the elected-school-board-that-should-not-exist are to be believed. (Vindy.com, 1/24/21)
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