Gadfly Bites 5/11/26—The high cost of desperation

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1. Not much to talk about yet again, but we’ll start with this quick first coverage of the Center for Christian Virtue’s recent announcement that it would be starting a nationwide scholarship granting organization (SGO) to take advantage of the new federal tax credit program. The coverage comes from Cleveland.com so you can guess that it leans toward the negative as an initial response, but I have no doubt that the tone will change in due course as other states and organizations—hello, New York—figure out their place in the new paradigm. (Cleveland.com, 5/11/26)
   
   

2. The City of Cleveland is desperate to save four long-closed district buildings from demolition, last week putting out a call for development proposals for any or all of them before the excuses run out and the wrecking crew arrives. If Cleveland Metropolitan School District had sold them when they were decommissioned 15 or more years ago, it is likely they would have sold—at market price—to a charter or private school operator. Wanting to keep the competition from getting “their” buildings, CMSD instead held onto them, paying millions to secure the buildings and maintain the grounds for all those years. The dreamed-of surge of new students never materialized—and in fact enrollment has shrunk even further in that time, supercharged by CMSD’s insistence on staying closed during Covid longer than anyone and relying on ungraded paper packets to “teach” students throughout. Now, the empty buildings have deteriorated so far that no school—and maybe no other developer—could think of using them without millions of dollars of rehabilitation. (Even demolition would cost more than they are worth.) Thus, the City of Cleveland is now clearly so desperate on CMSD’s behalf that any plausible pitch for these “historic properties” at any bargain basement price will likely be accepted. Sounds to me like a steep cost to keep out the competition. (Signal Cleveland, 5/8/26)

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