News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
- Color me slightly surprised that no Ohio outlets have yet found this new Urban Institute report newsworthy enough (as I write this) to cover its release yesterday. It is research that shows, among other things, that students using EdChoice Scholarships were substantially more likely to enroll in college than otherwise-similar peers who remained in public schools (with especially large impacts at four-year and selective colleges) and that enrollment impacts were strongest for male students, Black students, students with below-median test scores before leaving public school, and students from the lowest-income families. How is that not newsworthy?! Similar positive impacts were found for degree completion as well, and the longer students utilized EdChoice, the more positive their outcomes. Amazing! OK. As I read that back now, maybe it’s finally dawning on me why the statewide news media is holding off. You can, and should, check it out yourself. Hopefully our intrepid journos will find their way to it soon. (Urban Institute, 4/22/25). No such hesitation from the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, who published their unqualified praise for “Ohio’s School Choice Success Story” hot on the heels of the report’s release. They were also quick to note the positive competitive effects of school choice on students who remained in district schools: “Contrary to teachers union narratives, throwing more money at public schools frequently fails to have the same effect. Soaring government education spending hasn’t done much for student math and reading scores.” Yowza. (Wall Street Journal, 4/22/25)
- Apropos of…well…every word of the previous clips: Gongwer gave us updates earlier this week in two court cases of interest. First up, both the folks looking to take down EdChoice (and every other voucher program in Ohio) and the folks defending those programs agreed to swap out the Department of Education and Workforce for the State Board of Education in the suit. Dramatic, right? Secondly, the Reading Recovery Council of North America was awarded a continuation of the trial in their suit against the state for mandating the Science of Reading. See y’all in July. Not! (Gongwer Ohio, 4/21/25)
- Also courtesy of Gongwer: Trimble Local Schools finally got what they’ve wanted after begging the state for a declaration of fiscal emergency since December. But that “$olven¢y a$$i$tan¢e” needs to be paid back at some point. (Gongwer Ohio, 4/21/25) Doesn’t sound like Trimble residents are ready to sign off on the cuts that payback is going to require, if this coverage of a recent public meeting is anything to go by. The district supe tried to push back, saying his proposed cuts are necessary to keep the district from shutting down. But I assume the
angryhighly-motivated Trimblites (for surely that is what they are called) know as well as I do that district closure will never happen, no matter how bad the financials get. (WOUB-FM, Athens, 4/21/25) - On a similar financial note, we have good news and bad news from Toledo to end the clips today. First up is that Pete Kadens has made good on his pledge (as we all knew he would) to pay off the outstanding debts owed by HOPE Toledo scholarship recipients from the Scott High School Class of 2020 after the nonprofit he helped kickstart ran out of money to pay…well…anything in a flurry of bad publicity that just keeps on going. Secondly, HOPE Toledo leaders announced that a “major donor” (currently anonymous) has pledged to step in and pay off the organization’s remaining debts (for the graduating classes of 2021 and 2022 as well as the HOPE pre-K program) for this year. Could be half a million or more. Finally, though, it seems clear that no further angel investors will descend to continue any aspect of HOPE Toledo’s work going forward. And, I ask you, who can blame them? (Toledo Blade, 4/22/25)
Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.
Policy Priority:
Topics:
