Gadfly Bites 2/9/26—Not learning

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1. Somehow, Ohio’s new-ish Tax Credit Scholarship program—which allows individuals to donate to support private school scholarships and get a tax deduction for it—is simultaneously so unknown it must be explained like it’s an alien artefact found in a swamp and yet so popular it’s been “deducting” $25 million per year from state coffers since day one. You can read all the other limp exasperation-mongering for yourself, but I couldn’t help wondering what these haters would say about the non-profit support foundations for school districts around the state doing the exact same thing for decades…if they are ever asked. (Cleveland.com, 2/8/26)
   
   

2. As we briefly discussed during the height of weather-related school closures a couple weeks ago, your humble clips compiler is bothered by the endless focus of district leaders on how much “not school” they can get away with before being “punished” by “having to” make up lost time. They think about it and talk about it too dang much. Here we have another irritating case in point in Cleveland Height-University Heights City Schools (ranked 540 out of 607 districts on performance index score last year), whose leaders are laying plans to make up time for middle and high schoolers this year once they reach 8 full days of “mostly weather-related” closure…which they are sure will happen. And, in a phrase guaranteed to chill the blood faster than a lake effect snow squall, they say they are going to “go back and pull out all of the COVID protocols” to do it. Talk about a sterling example of “not school”. Not only that, but the elected school board of CH-UH is working to shorten up next year’s fall semester because parents would rather “unplug” over the holiday break than have a handful of additional days left in the semester after Christmas/New Year. Rather than turning in final projects and assignments or otherwise tying up loose ends from the fall semester, says the elected board vice president by way of explanation, “we can just spend time with the family and recharge.” What exactly do y’all need to recharge from? All that “not learning”, or the rhetorical knot-twisting you need to do to justify all that “not learning”? (Cleveland.com, 2/7/26)

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