Gadfly Bites 12/6/19 – Frustration

1. Whining and opining continue in response to the conference call to arms regard to the EdChoice Scholarship program. Private school leaders in the Dayton area tried to focus the discussion on students and parents, but the news outlet would not be deterred from making it all about money…and the f-word. (Dayton 24/7 Now, 12/3/19) Virtually the same sentiments are expressed in this news report from the Cleveland suburbs, including the f-bomb. (News 5, Cleveland, 12/5/19) Wait, I was talking about the word “frustration”. You know, like the title of the clips today? Which f-word were you thinking of?
    
2. The editors who oversee the new-ish Vindy.com were talking about the voucher thing too, along with charter schools. They are not fans of either, it seems. But mostly they were talking about money, of which they appear to be huge fans. Oddly, they seem to have been left off the EdChoice-Haters conference call because their reasoning is rather different to the talking points…but just as baffling to me. So there’s that. (Vindy.com, 12/5/19) I hadn’t personally understood all the references to “frustration” previously; but I’m starting to feel it now.
   
   

3. Speaking of parts of Ohio’s accountability system being under siege under the microscope, Governor DeWine this week said he wasn’t “wedded” to the practice of rating schools and districts using A-F grades. Awesome. (Gongwer Ohio, 12/4/19) The governor’s words, I think, were music to the ears of literally everyone quoted in this Marietta Times piece on the topic. (Marietta Times, 12/5/19) I feel the f-word coming on again.
    
4. Those Vindy.com editors were at it again yesterday, trying to dissuade their readers from their supposed hating on community colleges. This is not the first time we’ve heard this sentiment about community colleges being unworthy of such low esteem. (See our recent discussion of Fairless Local Schools’ cringeworthy “aim low and don’t be ashamed” campaign; surely that’s NOT what the message was supposed to be.) After this editorial, I’m beginning to think there was another conference call I wasn’t invited to. (Vindy.com, 12/5/19) Luckily, someone else missed that conference call: the good folks at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. What’s this piece about then? How awesome Sinclair is at providing early college experience (and credits and valuable job skills and certifications) for local high schoolers. You know, just Sinclair being unabashedly itself. No apologies required. (Dayton Business Journal, 12/6/19)
   
   

5. The headline of this piece from Athens County suggests that the state’s giant new pot of student wellness funding is either “Godsend or Band-Aid” to the schools receiving it. As it turns out, both of those options may be blindly optimistic based on the tone of the actual story. From the quotes within, it sounds more to me like “drop in the bucket” “peanuts” “insult” “insignificant” is the prevailing opinion. Aside from school officials seeming to be completely stymied by things like kids being raised by grandparents or families not having regular access to cars, it doesn’t feel to me like those officials are even trying to think how a giant infusion of cash might help them with any of their immediate needs. Athens City Schools, largest district in the county, wants for example to spend their surprise largesse on constructing “wellness rooms” that they might be able to use later if the state provides yet more money for staffing. That is, they plan to spend over $1.6 million building four or so empty rooms in new buildings already on the drawing board. Over the next few years. How is that helpful? To anyone? For anything? (Athens News, 12/4/19)
    
6. This is a thorny one: A change in busing services in Revere Local Schools, scheduled to go into effect next week, is causing angst for families with multiple custodial parents used to being able to change pick up and drop off locations for their kids on any given day. It seems that state law does not require districts to provide such on-demand services except in rare instances and Revere was apparently experiencing lots of delays for everyone by doing so. This piece seems to indicate its really only one family who will end up being inconvenienced by ending the voluntary practice, but even the putative improvement in service for a far larger number of other families doesn’t diminish the negatives for the one family. Surely there is something that can be done. How about an “impractical to transport” designation and payment in lieu? Something. (Akron Beacon Journal, 12/4/19)
   
   

7. Or maybe something like this could work: Three small school districts in the Mahoning Valley are moving toward sharing services following a feasibility study conducted by the state auditor. While the study included recommendations for central office and food service functions, it sounds like transportation is going to be the first area where the districts will start to work together to save time and money and to provide efficient service. Nice! (Vindy.com, 12/5/19)

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