Gadfly Bites 2/20/26—Down the toilet, or Plumbing the depths

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1. Traditional district school enrollment in Ohio has fallen by nearly 2 percent (or 26,900 students) over the last five school years, Eileen McClory tells us in this piece. Charter school enrollment has grown by 4.2 percent and private school enrollment by 11.2 percent over that same period. To our Aaron Churchill, this means that “more Ohio students today are attending schools that fit their needs,” and is happy about that fact. Meanwhile, in Bizarro World, school choice haters bill these numbers as “overwhelming support” for traditional districts. Yep. Just like a leaky set of tires are “mostly supportive” of your car…for now. (Dayton Daily News, 2/19/26)
   
   

2. Here in the Real World, the steady loss of so many students has legitimate consequences—especially when the district in question chooses to ignore reality for years. Facing a humungous budget hole on the horizon, Cleveland Metropolitan School District is closing 18 buildings and consolidating dozens more at the end of this school year, impacting more than 7,000 kids. (The fact that that number is not any higher given the massive number of buildings involved says a lot.) This piece is a look at the status of the enrollment process for these and other CMSD students, the first piece of which ends next week. The numbers so far are pretty interesting. About half of students whose schools are closing have chosen a different district building than the one they were automatically assigned to. About the same amount have made no affirmative choice within the district as yet. (They’ll be automatically assigned somewhere…if they come back at all.) There are also nearly 900 applications for students new to the district for next year, which is notable for several reasons. But the most interesting part of this for me is the interview with the two moms of rising seniors and how they are evaluating all of their options. Interdistrict open enrollment and EdChoice A robust set of choices FTW, I think. (Signal Cleveland, 2/17/26)
   
   

3. Finally this week, in a typical district in a typical small city in north central Ohio: A proposal to expand their STEM education program to middle school students is receiving vociferous and, if I may say so, very thorough pushback from teachers and other staff members in the impacted building. Among the litany of objections: The expense of installing larger toilets and drinking fountains to accommodate older students, as well as purchasing larger furniture. When folks are willing to go that low—literally into the sewers—with their opposition, I figure there’s no middle ground possible and we can safely consider that plan DOA. (Richland Source, 2/18/26)

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