Gadfly Bites 1/3/25—If you know, you know

This is the first edition of Gadfly Bites to be published in 2025. Glad you’re back with us! These clips cover the end of 2024 only—from Dec 20 to Dec 31. We will be back on Monday with our first look at clips from the new year.

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1. In our last edition in 2024, we made passing mention of $4 million added by the General Assembly to the budget of the Ohio Department and Workforce to help pay for the ongoing legal fight against the lawsuit aiming to eliminate EdChoice. Here’s some coverage of this move from the Dayton Daily News. In it, we learn that DEW has spent over $241,000 fighting the voucher litigation already this fiscal year and that the lead voucher groucher deems this “a waste of money”. That’s pretty laughable coming from the guy who continues recruiting school districts to pay his own litigation fees using the exact same funding source. (Dayton Daily News, 12/30/24)
   
   

2. I’ve got to hand it to DDN education reporter Eileen McClory. She was obviously working hard before and after Christmas to bring us a number of important stories, making up the bulk of today’s Bites with grateful appreciation from me. Next up is her look at the apparent epidemic of student expulsions for fighting. She reports that, statewide, schools reported 821 expulsions due to fighting during the 2018-2019 school year, but that the number reached 1,259 expulsions in the 2023-2024 school year, a nearly 66 percent increase. As ever, Eileen brings us the local picture, noting some districts reported a decrease in expulsions for fighting. However, as we have been noting here (based largely on DDN reporting), 2024-25 doesn’t seem to be off to a great start in Dayton City Schools. These include off-campus fights involving Dayton students at two public library branches, both of which chose to close their doors as an immediate response to the incidents. Obviously not an ideal situation, but other solutions remain elusive. (Dayton Daily News, 12/27/24)
   
   

3. Next up on Eileen McClory’s year-end list: Checking out enrollment numbers in public schools in the Dayton area. In order to avoid just providing bad news about declines, she has to look at charter and career-technical schools, many of which are growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, in the top 10 list of fastest-growing schools, only two were traditional districts and they are both small exurban systems where new housing has been going up—and filling up with families—quickly. (Wonder where they’re moving from, eh?) Says the superintendent of top-grower Bethel Local Schools: “I think a lot of people move here because they like the school system.” Preach it, supe! Sounds to me like school choice (in all its forms) for the win. (Dayton Daily News, 12/23/24) Also on the grow, according to Eileen McClory, is Dayton Christian School. It is, she reports, the fastest-growing private school in the area. It currently serves 1,280 students from pre-K to grade 12, and leaders project up to 1,500 students by the 2025-2026 school year. (Wonder where those new students will be coming from, eh?) Thus, Dayton Christian has launched a capital campaign to expand the campus to keep up with that expected demand. Awesome! (Dayton Daily News, 12/23/24) School choice was also on the mind of Columbus Dispatch reporter Anna Lynn Winfrey (was it, really?) as the year came to a close. Specifically, she gives us a look at what proportion of resident students in Franklin County school districts choose private schools rather than attending in their local district. The average is 14 percent. The highest is in the suburbs of Bexley and Westerville, which stands to reason to me for two specific reasons: religious preference and the existence of high-profile private options like Columbus School for Girls (go Unicorns!). Likewise, the lowest percentage of private schoolers is Grandview Heights at just three percent. If you’ve ever experienced the educational flavor of that particular landlocked Shangri-La, this will likely not come as a surprise to you either. (Columbus Dispatch, 12/30/24) Finally for 2024, we have yet more proof that school choice is becoming more mainstream in Ohio. To wit: Tess Mitchner-Asinjo, Executive Director of Dayton Leadership Academies (a charter school sponsored by our sister organization the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation), was the guest on a December edition of the podcast hosted by Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims. I will admit that I have not listened to the whole thing, but it seems that Hizzoner understands the vital connection of charter schools to the community, especially one like DLA that has been around for 25 years. You love to see hear it! (City of Dayton, 12/20/24)

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