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- I know this will not come as a shock to any of my 11 dedicated Gadfly Bites subscribers (thanks, everyone, for putting up with my nonsense all these years), but there appears to be no pleasing Ohio’s voucher grouchers. The fact that there clearly was no mass exodus of students from traditional district schools in the first year of near-universal voucher eligibility is somehow a Very Bad Thing, it seems, as I read this coverage. Almost as bad, I reckon, as if the exodus they predicted would actually have come true. But maybe my view on this stuff is just hopelessly skewed. (Cleveland.com, 3/2/24)
- You know, after all that, it occurs to me that it’s entirely possible I’m a Bad News Hypocrite. This story—about a nonprofit looking to help low-income students in Dayton City Schools get into college—definitely is couched as a Very Good Thing. But I don’t like it because the group does not work with low-income charter, STEM, or private school students, and probably never will. They have barely started working in Dayton and are already looking to expand their footprint in the area, they say, but only to other traditional districts. Hmmm… (Dayton Daily News, 3/2/24) This, too, is testing me today. The group CityVerse is looking to make poetry cool for high school students in Youngstown, creating a talent contest and perhaps even going so far as naming the winner the Poet Laureate of Y’town. A Very Good Thing…which is unfortunately only open to students in two of the district’s high school buildings and no one else. (Vindy.com, 3/4/24) Relatedly: Remember a few weeks ago (sure you do) when I noted that school districts can occasionally fall afoul of zoning commissions and NIMBYs when trying to build a new facility, just like charter schools in Ohio routinely do? That is still true, especially in Toledo, which is Bad but at least seems equal-opportunity Bad. However, in this piece, we realize that it ain’t equal or fair, because big city school districts have several weapons in their arsenal to fight the zoning blockers that charters simply don’t: Deep pockets of their own to, say, add retention ponds and metered water release features to their site designs to satisfy the “it’s gonna flood my house!” NIMBYs; deep pocketed city government partners to, say, prioritize the location and timing of taxpayer-funded street improvements to satisfy the “it’s gonna add too much traffic!” NIMBYs; and the ability to get, say, the city’s Commissioner of Sewers and Drainage Services and Deputy Mayor to actually show up and promise—in-person and on the record—the municipal moon and stars to every class of NIMBY who bothers to have a concern. What do charters have? Me. Yeah. OK. I’m cured. (Toledo Blade, 3/1/24)
- And to further bolster the point, we mustn’t forget that a city government’s support of a district (and any other entity, I reckon) is a two-way street. Case in point, Cleveland Metropolitan School District announced—on the heels of its roasting in City Council last week—that the student-run grant program called “Get More Opportunities” would be reinstated forthwith. This despite the district’s (still-extant and still-giant) post-ESSER budget hole and the fact that new-ish CEO Warren Morgan explained that the program wasn’t exactly the egalitarian wish-granter its supporters believed it to be in its first go-round. But I’m sure none of that really mattered in this situation. (Cleveland.com, 3/1/24)
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