Gadfly Bites 4/20/26—Good ideas never go out of style

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1. As we mentioned last week (and a jillion other times before that), one key reason why Ohio school districts are facing big budget deficits right now is because they have lost a ton of students over the last decade. Even the ones who understand they need to close/consolidate buildings to right-size their facilities remain reluctant to actually sell those empty buildings because Ohio law nominally requires charter and private school operators to get first dibs on any sale or auction. But districts have found and utilized every loophole in the law to stop “the competition” from “winning” in this scenario. Thus Ohio Senate Bill 311, which attempts to close a number of those loopholes, is currently drawing ire from districts and their assorted alphabet soup of apologists. (Ohio Capital Journal, 4/20/26)
   
   

2. One of my least favorite times of year has arrived: Let The Haters Tell You Why Vouchers Suck So Much season is nearly upon us. First stop, Akron. No balancing viewpoints needed at this event it seems…or in this coverage. (Signal Akron, 4/19/26)
   
   

3. Very few stories have frustrated me as much over the years as Toledo City Schools’ career high school program. As my long-tenured, long-tormented subscribers will no doubt remember, the program was rolled out a couple years ago at various district high schools with a bunch of high-profile employer- and higher ed-partners and with great names like Construction Careers Academy and Aerospace and Natural Science Academy (still a weird combo though). But the rollout also came with tepid statements from district leaders about how none of the programs would be promising a specific career—even to successful grads—but instead instilling “transferrable skills” that would help graduates get some job at some point in the future. Maddening! Why bother to call it “aviation tech” and recruit a pipeline of education and employment partners if kids are just going to get the same level of math they need for a job at T.J. Maxx? To my surprise, however, it feels like everyone other than the administration took the programs and their names seriously—including students. Here’s an example of Toledo City Schools’ Pre-Med & Health Science Academy living up to the promise of its name for at least one more student. The hospital reps quoted here are effusive in their praise of senior Alayna Bui, her exemplary learning and early work as a pharmacy tech, and the promise of the program to lift up more young people like her into good-paying, career-ladder professional jobs right from high school. District supe Romules Durant is a bit less enthusiastic, as per usual, but even he seems to be figuring out that his career pathway high schools as actually working as advertised and preparing kids for a specific career. Just like district families want and need. (Toledo Blade, 4/20/26)
   
   

4. Saving the best for last, Fordham is introduced in this piece as an “influential education think tank” and our prescription for revamping state report cards is laid out in some detail after that. Very nice. Unfortunately for everyone, our proposals are deemed to be a bit ahead of their time by numerous state level stakeholders and “unlikely to inspire major changes” to K-12 accountability in the near term as both the Executive and Legislative branches are heading for electoral shakeups soon. That’s OK, folks: Good ideas never go out of style. We can wait. (Gongwer Ohio/State Affairs, 4/19/26) Also unfortunately for most Bites readers, the Gongwer/State Affairs piece is subscriber-only content. But I can offer you a link to Chad Aldis’ on the report card revamp plan in testimony before the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce via The Ohio Channel. (Chad starts speaking at approximately 1:25:50.) You can also read about it here.

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