Gadfly Bites 4/3/26—Grappling with a disaster of their own making

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1. There’s a whole lot of Fordham in today’s clips—just how I like ‘em! Let’s start with this piece written by a student journalist regarding the state of school funding in that individual’s resident district: Columbus City Schools. I’ll let you read the author’s take on vouchers, charters, transportation, and the state funding formula for yourself and see what grade you would render for the work (although I’m sure you can guess without really needing to see the deets). For myself, I will offer an initial B+ for quoting Fordham Institute data to make a point but knock it down to a C- for not linking to the source. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/2/26)
   
   

2. This next piece is also about Columbus City Schools, discussing upcoming changes to their graduation requirements; the implication is that they are lowering the bar at the behest of the state of Ohio. Luckily for us all, Fordham’s Aaron Churchill is on hand to shine the cold light of complex truth on the matter. He calls Ohio’s academic requirements for graduation “pretty basic” overall, and notes that Ohio has recently added pathways and processes that “makes it more complicated than it needs to be.” Simplification and “a stronger standard at the end of high school” to signal postsecondary readiness (be that college or the workforce) would go a long way to making a diploma—from Columbus and every other district—actually mean something again. No further state intervention required. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/2/26)
   
   

3. Meanwhile, Fordham’s Chad Aldis is quoted in this subscriber-only piece from Gongwer. The topic: Proposed changes to state report cards’ early literacy benchmarks. In testimony at the Ohio Department of Education’s recent public meeting, Chad expressed his support for the changes, saying they are needed to prevent a bunch of schools from receiving lower ratings next year. “Schools would have gotten worse not by a change in performance,” he explained, “but based upon changes to the measurement category, which we do not think would have been fair or would have been a positive step for Ohio.” The report card system, he said, risks “losing credibility” without these changes…and probably several others not currently up for debate. (Gongwer Ohio/State Affairs, 4/2/26)
   
   

4. Here’s a quick overview of the results of this year’s school application process in Cleveland Metropolitan School District, a process complicated by the closure and consolidation of dozens of buildings across the district. CMSD officials said 6,523 students applied for and were assigned to a school of their choice. Of those, 93 percent were assigned to at least one of the schools on their ranked list, with 91 percent assigned to their top eligible choice. Nice. (Spectrum News 1, Ohio, 4/2/26) More importantly, here’s a detailed look at some of the restructuring going on in the district—classes, extracurriculars, special education supports, schedules, and more—as a result of the closure and consolidation of buildings. The execution of these changes and the quality of the offerings will be the true arbiter of whether they’re good or not, but it has to be heartening to CMSD families that its leaders are clearly focused on the nuts and bolts of operating their district. (Signal Cleveland, 4/1/26) As a cautionary case in point: One assumes a similar amount of focus went into creating CMSD’s student transportation system. But recent whistleblowing and reporting show numerous alarming problems in the system. This piece recounts all of the recent issues and introduces us to Dr. Timothy Primus, the brand-new Executive Director of Transportation for CMSD, bumped up from high school principal within the last two weeks. Dr. P spoke before the appointed board last week, saying “I look forward to the challenge of this new role and just helping out with everything I possibly can to help move building brighter futures ahead.” We know where the proof of success will lie; hope he does too. (Spectrum News 1 Ohio, 4/2/26)
   
   

5. Speaking of transportation disasters, cash-strapped Akron City Schools is now facing an additional $4 million overrun for providing transportation for students with special needs and who are experiencing homelessness. While this piece makes it sound like a simple case of confusion (do we budget per student or per route?), the truth of the matter is far more complicated. It stems from the elected board’s decisions last year to a) delay contracting with established third-party providers for these services so that previous independent-contractor van drivers could evanesce their own companies from the ether to compete against the established providers, and b) put their thumbs on the scale to give those new “companies” the contracts anyway after they finished far down in the rankings of all the bids received. Seems like a recipe for an expensive mistake. Who could have foreseen this disaster? Me. You can check out my flabbergasted reaction to this ridiculous deal back from May 2025 here) And so, with my bona fides established, let’s continue the saga. Even with this completely predictable outcome, the elected board voted last week not to cut bait from the van drivers at last and non-renew their contracts for 2026-27, but to extend the deadline for renewal, kicking the can down the road for at least another month. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to happen (although my money is on lawsuit), but from here I will predict that the overrun/discrepancy will be a) settled for something less than 4 million taxpayer dollars, but definitely not zero taxpayer dollars, b) will lead to no consequences or additional oversight for the “companies” in question, and c) will result in all relevant contracts being renewed for at least another year. Start the clock! (Signal Akron, 4/2/26)
   
   

6. Finally—to end on an up note for the week—kudos to Utica Shale Academy, an extraction-industry-focused charter school in Salineville, for being named one of 10 finalists for the Future Forward Schools Prize. The national award is intended to recognize and support innovative approaches to career education. Utica Shale Academy is specifically being lauded for its early career path exploration program. If they win, the school will receive $50,000 to boost their ongoing work. Winners will be announced in early May. USA! USA! USA! (WTRF-TV, Wheeling, WV, 4/1/26)

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