Gadfly Bites 3/19/25—Show your work, people

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1. Chad Aldis’ proponent testimony from February on Senate Bill 19 is quoted extensively in this piece, looking at how the bill proposes to boost academic supports for students who score at the lowest levels on state tests in math and English language arts. The best update: No real opposition to the bill has materialized since then. Chad’s full testimony—with lots of important data and analysis—is here. (Dayton Daily News, 3/14/25)
   
   

2. Also thinking about student math achievement is OSU professor Vlad Kogan. He is one of several voices in this piece urging schools to do more—and do it faster—to remediate Covid-era learning loss in numeracy. “We’ve seen recovery across the board,” says Kogan, “but the gaps remain in math. And they’re there for everybody, all students, subgroups, all districts.” No time to lose, y’all. Let’s get crackin’! (WOSU-FM, Columbus, 3/17/25)
   
   

3. Speaking of math, saying that “about 19 percent” of state money spent on EdChoice vouchers goes to “the richest families”—as this piece does say in multiple ways—is equal to saying that the vast majority of state money spent on EdChoice vouchers (more than 80 percent) goes to the neediest families. Right? Glad we cleared that up. (Cleveland.com, 3/11/25)
   
   

4. Staying on the topic of math, I’m not sure this one adds up at all. Public policy analyst Rob Moore, using data from surveys and other research, concludes that increased spending on education leads to higher test scores for students, higher likelihood that high school grads will go to college, and the probability that those college-goers will have better job prospects and all of the economic benefits that come with them. Wisely, he doesn’t specify the type of school where this money must go to produce these valuable bennies, although the headline singles out “public school” spending. But even that seems imprecise to me. Does the “public school” category include charters and STEM schools? I would certainly hope so here in Ohio. But what if more students are going to private schools while traditional districts are simultaneously losing kids? Wouldn’t the additional spending have to go where the students actually are in order to achieve these economic impacts? I know this is an opinion piece, but I still say you’ve got to show your work if you want thinking people to pay attention. (Ohio Capital Journal, 3/17/25)
   
   

5. There is a ton we could unpack in this piece, which talks about the annual dog and pony show put on by Toledo City Schools to hype up their district as an exemplar to other district officials from throughout the state. But I will just focus on two things that stood out sharply for me this year: a) The amount of denial displayed by elected school board members and district administrators is off the charts. Not that there’s not good stuff going on in pockets, but the data on Toledo’s miserable report card comes from somewhere. Showing visitors a few examples of specialty programs while denying the validity of report cards multiple times out loud and on the record actually undermines your own assertions; and b) Allowing those specialty programs (like the high-profile aviation, business, and pre-med academies) to be characterized as “hands-on learning for those students who may not do so well sitting all day in class”—and believing this description to be high praise—feels like an admission that these much-vaunted programs are not about boosting academics but are (as I have personally always believed) non-academic pathways into low-skilled, low-wage, non-career-path jobs in otherwise-marquee employment sectors. (Toledo Blade, 3/8/25)
   
   

6. The alphabet blob of traditional district support organizations has asked the legislature to create a student transportation committee to help address the busing issues plaguing those districts for the last several years. “The complexity of pupil transportation in Ohio requires a comprehensive review and strategic planning approach,” said Katie Johnson, executive director of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO), in recent testimony. “We believe it is essential to establish a Pupil Transportation Working Group to evaluate Ohio’s transportation funding structure and make recommendations for systemic improvements.” And while this is not a terrible idea if you ask me (which no one has done, of course, or ever will do), I think that she and her compadres should be careful what they wish for. Recent legislative responses to those busing woes—to the tune of millions of dollars in ongoing fines as we discussed in these clips on Monday—have been far more affirmative to school-choice-using, non-district families whose schooling has been disrupted by inept transportation than to districts’ excuses explanations for their lack of success in the endeavor. I strongly doubt any working group constituted today would feel differently. But what do I know, eh? (Dayton Daily News, 3/10/25)

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