- If you can stand one more story from last week’s education writer’s conference in Colorado, I can. Fordham’s Mike Petrilli said, “Ohio needs a top-to-bottom overhaul of its charter school sector” during one of the final panels at the event. As noted in the article, the state budget and another House bill included dozens of provisions to do just that. The state auditor will be adding his valuable input on reforms tomorrow morning, and the Senate is poised to do the same soon. Sounds like progress. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- There are those who say that Mike’s comment is, shall we say, plain as the nose on one’s face. And since we’re going there, here’s another one: Columbus City Schools needs regular audits of many of its systems, processes, and departments. So opine the editors of the Columbus Dispatch today. They focus heavily on the example of the steaming pile of fail that is the district’s transportation department, as revealed last week in an internal auditor’s report. Small item not mentioned: actions needed to fix up this vital system may be budgeted for next year. Unless of course those rigorous audits unearth anything else that needs fixing even more urgently. (Columbus Dispatch)
- In what might be called a case of “synergy”, two different newspapers are following the same story today: substitute teacher shortages in their areas. First up, Montgomery County. Journalist Jeremy Kelley talks mainly to suburban districts, all of which have been having trouble finding substitutes this year. Various reasons are given for the problem, from an improving economy to teacher “pickiness”. Dayton City Schools, which recently opted to outsource is substitute teaching pool, did not respond to questions. (Dayton Daily News)
- Next up, substitute teacher shortages in Butler and Warren Counties. In these districts low pay for substitutes gets the blame. Some districts interviewed are raising their daily pay rate for subs, others are just gutting it out waiting for an upcoming wave of teacher retirements to generate a new pool of subs. (Middletown Journal-News)
