Gadfly Bites 2/14/25—Putting the “lord” in “landlord”

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1. Governor DeWine met with reporters for the Ohio outlets in the Ogden Newspaper group earlier this week, talking about the K-12 education proposals in his new two-year budget. I am happy to say that the resulting piece plays out as straight reportage, in which Hizzoner gets to explain that charter schools need more funding, that it’s possible for Ohio to support both choice schools and traditional districts, and that guaranteed funding for districts with shrinking enrollment is a waste of precious resources that could be better used elsewhere. All without the journalistic interventionism that usually comes with these types of stories. (The Courier, 2/14/25)
   
   

2. The governor talks quite a bit in the foregoing piece about schools and their place in communities, a topic which has come up several times in the last few editions of Bites, with some districts coming off a bit less “neighborly” than DeWine describes the ones he is familiar with. Here’s another situation that feels a bit less than neighborly to me: One of the wealthiest school districts in Ohio has purchased a charming four-unit 1929 apartment building that abuts one of their middle schools in a well-established, leafy-green, expensive historic neighborhood. They got an off-market deal and a huge price break ($250K under appraised value), even though they have no current plans for the property. District officials say they are just now thinking of potential plans for the building and are “working with” the tenants on “next steps”. But they also say very clearly that the value of the purchase is more in the land than in the existing building. So I think we can rest assured that those next steps will definitely be out the door. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/14/25)
   
   

3. Finally this week: I don’t know if this is important in any larger sense, but it is at least interesting (to this city planning grad anyway) to note that an appeals court ruled in favor of Sylvania City Schools in a case involving transportation of private school students. The ruling emphasizes that school transportation in any form is “not a fundamental right” and that districts need to use limited resources efficiently. The crux is “hub and spoke” routes with “layovers” versus more direct door-to-door routes. The judges were more swayed by the district’s ability to successfully staff the smaller number of routes (cut by 55 runs and fully eliminating the fines they previously incurred from the state) than by the plaintiffs’ travails trying to get their kids to school on time with the new routing. I promise to keep an eye on it to see if this ruling has any further implications. (Gongwer Ohio, 2/12/25)

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