Gadfly Bites 2/16/26—Hometown heroes

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1. No U.S. presidents have hailed from Lima, Ohio, so I can’t directly connect today’s sole clip to the celebration of Presidents Day. Too bad. (It was originally published on Valentine’s Day but I definitely don’t detect any love in it either.) The Lima News piece looks at what federal moves on education—particularly the dissolution of the U.S. Department of Education, should it come to fruition—will mean for K-12 education locally. (Very locally.) However, some other prominent pols do call Lima home, which might give us a clue as to the local relevance. These include former Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp (he of the Cupp-Patterson school funding plan, referenced within), U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (who recently reiterated his support for the dissolution of USDOE), and current Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman (who is quoted in the piece saying “There doesn’t need to be” a USODE). Fordham’s Aaron Churchill—who has only been to Lima once in his life—is also quoted in this piece, saying that the impact of Dept. of Ed closure “will be fairly minimal” because it is a “minority stakeholder” in K-12 education, contributing roughly 10 cents for each dollar spent on children enrolled in public schools. I assume he’s talking both about Lima and the entire country at the same time. (Lima News, 2/14/26)

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