Gadfly Bites 2/6/26—How someone else always gets us into trouble and why someone else must always get us out of it

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1. For our second edition in a row, we start by talking about the poor state of math education in Ohio’s schools, and the commentary again comes in the form of a newspaper op-ed from our friends at Ohio Excels. This time, it’s org president Lisa Gray reminding us of the dire state of student math achievement across the state, the fact that math teachers can be certified even if they fail the math portion of their licensure exam, and that there is a bill under debate in the legislature that proposes fixes for all this and more. (Logan Daily, 2/6/26)
   
   

2. This week’s math talk seems highly relevant because we’ve also been getting increasingly shrill coverage of the fact that districts like Columbus City Schools are facing huge deficits and are required to cut their budgets like never before. The primary reason for these budget holes, as I know you know, is their years-long failure to reckon with shrinking student populations and to right-size their operations to match that reality. Especially in Columbus. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/4/26) Elyria City Schools’ enrollment losses have been less severe than many big-city districts, but they also have been ongoing for years now. However, you will see no discussion of that issue in this piece telling the district’s version of claiming to explain how Elyria arrived at the urgent need to cut $9 million from their budget. It is everyone else’s fault, as you might have guessed, from state legislators to county commissioners to local voters. And, they argue, it’s someone else’s job to just send more money to fix it. (Chronicle-Telegram, 2/5/26) Despite all the coverage of budget reduction votes, I’m not sure if we can really count on the cuts actually happening. As we have noted here several times, Columbus City Schools voted in November of 2024 to close, empty, and sell their downtown headquarters property “immediately”. None of that happened, although this piece indicates that some “shifting” of HQ workers is just now beginning to occur, only 16 months late. “No deadline exists yet for a full move,” said a district spokesperson with no discernable trace of irony, “but I think it is inevitable that we will eventually sell this and move everyone.” How very underwhelming, sir. Also underwhelming: that measly $4 million appraisal value quoted for the buildings and prime downtown land. Surely a lowball figure given the ongoing development all around it. (Columbus Underground, 2/5/26) But outside help is trying to come to the rescue of Columbus City Schools at least. And it may even get there…eventually. The state’s largest school district is finally getting itself one of those slush-fundy-sounding support foundations we were talking about a few weeks ago—ubiquitous in the suburbs and smaller rural districts. The Columbus City Education Foundation will be led by former elected school board member Christina Vera and it will be able to raise unlimited funds to pour into the district which is having so very much trouble living within its budget of hundreds of millions of dollars per year despite serving hundreds fewer students every year. But none of this largesse will be sloshing into the district’s coffers right away. We learn in the final line of this coverage that the foundation must “fundraise for operational costs before it can launch in earnest.” (Columbus Dispatch, 2/4/26)
   
   

3. Finally today, this seems like a really good story overall. But even though I’m not a teacher and thus am probably missing something obvious, I still have questions about the facts underlying the good news. At Akron City Schools’ Jennings Community Learning Center, the passing rate on Ohio’s English proficiency test for students who speak English as a second language (ESL) has recently skyrocketed—from 20 percent in 2024 to 53 percent last year. Credit for that laudable boost is wholeheartedly given to mentor/tutor/cheerleader/“cool friend” Rafa Hernández-Brito, a Cleveland Cavaliers radio announcer who is a native Spanish speaker originally from El Salvador and who has been helping out in the classroom since 2025. This is all good news for the kids, but I found myself wondering what specifically he was doing to help more kids reach a passing grade. One ESL teacher says it’s because, “The kids get to see a real-world example, they get to see someone that’s engaged with them, someone who is successful, charismatic and someone who shows an interest in some time with them.” But why, I ask myself, aren’t the teachers doing all that? Especially if it's going to make so huge an improvement. Why is this untrained, unlicensed volunteer from outside the school able to be that “engaged someone”—and to do it so successfully—while the degreed, licensed, and highly-paid teachers are, by the data and information we get in the piece, not able to do that? If Rafa more than doubled the passing score with however much time he contributed—surely a fraction of time spent by the teachers—what exactly were the teachers doing both before and after he arrived? Even the principal’s comments—which sound good at first blush—end up raising the same concerns for me. “We are very intentional to make sure our students are successful to get them prepared for high school and beyond,” says principal Dawn Harper. But before Rafa came along, all that “intentionality” resulted in a 20 percent pass rate, leaving the vast majority of kids not prepared to move on. And even with Rafa’s clearly vital contribution, Harper says she’s “hoping for at least 75 percent” of students to pass the test this year. Rafa? He’s confident he’s going to get 100 percent. I mean—go Rafa!—that’s obviously what is supposed to happen and I actually think he could get there. But why does it always have to be someone else to the rescue? (Akron Beacon Journal, 2/6/26)

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