- Our own Aaron Churchill pushed a Kardashian off the front page of the 74 Million’s blog yesterday, talking about the “dismal democracy” that often is the local elected school board in Ohio. (The 74 Million education blog, 3/2/16)
- Our own Chad Aldis had no measurable influence over the Kardashian kabal while talking about some of the dismal demagoguery that attends charter school issues in Ohio. (Politico Pro Education Report, 3/2/16)
- Keeping up with the theme, editors in Nordonia Hills (no, I don’t either) opined against the “slimy influences” of “scoundrels” trying to undermine or even reverse charter school accountability measures in Ohio. (Nordonia Hills News-Leader, 3/2/16)
- Back in the real world, Dayton City Schools announced a new initiative that will give Chromebooks to every student in grades 3 through 8 during the school day, starting next year. A pilot program kicks off at one school this month. (Dayton Daily News, 3/3/16) Ditto for the kids (and teachers) at the Chaney High School campus in Youngstown, although YCS is going with Apple products. Interesting to note that the district received a grant from Apple for this tech two years ago, and it included funds for a wifi upgrade if needed. Very wise, but sadly it was just this part of the deal that caused the delay. The district didn’t want to change the wifi hardware at one school without changing it district-wide. So they had to wait for money from the state’s E-Rate program before moving forward. Chaney students and staff will finally get their Macs next year. (Youngstown Vindicator, 3/4/16) Ditto for some East High School students in Y’town – with no waiting. 21 iMacs were distributed to neighborhood students by the nonprofit Center for Community Empowerment this week, with at least 80 more to come. All of the recipients are students at East and are of Latino heritage. Seems like a prudent and timely use of resources – recall last week our discussion of the state of math instruction at East. (Youngstown Vindicator, 3/3/16) We close our technology report back in Dayton, where Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work this week urged a group of African-American male students to consider a career in science, technology, engineering and math or in public service. If any of those young men choose to accept his “challenge coin” (read the article to see what that means), those aforementioned Chromebooks will probably come in handy. (Dayton Daily News, 3/3/16)
- In even realer news, the return of “above-minimum” bus service for Toledo City Schools’ students will experience a contraction (by nearly half) in early April. There’s a million reasons for the move put forward in this piece (saving money, right-sizing service, eliminating bus “line ups”), all positive. Recall that this is mainly the district paying money to the local rapid transit service for students, not yellow buses. (Toledo Blade, 3/4/16) The math on display on that Blade story may beg more questions than it answers, but not so this story about district busing costs in Stark County. Cheap gasoline has most districts saving big on bus transportation this year, and the Rep’s enterprising reporter adds it all up (well, subtracts it) for you. The sole exception is Canton City Schools, who is paying quite a bit more for fuel this year compared to last. Charter schools, albeit indirectly, are to blame. Naturally. (Canton Repository, 3/3/16)
