Gadfly Bites is back from vacation. Hope you missed me as much as I missed you!
- In case you missed this news while you were busy missing me, our own Chad Aldis provided interested party testimony on education provisions of the state budget during a hearing in the Senate Primary and Secondary Education Committee on Monday. Unfortunately for all of us, Chad’s well-reasoned comments were not the primary focus of Gongwer’s committee coverage. (Gongwer Ohio, 5/10/21) What was Gongwer’s focus? The rising realization among fervid supporters of the Cupp-Patterson school funding plan—currently part of the budget bill under debate—that it may undergo some significant changes in the Senate. (You may also have missed the approximately 1,529 editorials published across the state this week—each one sounding more desperate than the last—hitting on this exact topic as if forged in some three-shifts-a-day outrage factory.) The Senate President aired his thoughts on the topic to Gongwer on Wednesday. (Gongwer Ohio, 5/12/21)
- In the interim, Chad was back in front of that same Senate committee on Tuesday, testifying on the topic of a state report card overhaul. Far more of his testimony was covered this time around. (Gongwer Ohio, 5/11/21)
- Youngstown City Schools Superintendent Joe Meranto retired this week after five decades in education and is in a reflective mood. I don’t want to comment on his work before now, but he definitely has his rose-tinted glasses on as he waxes poetic about the last four years at Youngstown. He was hired in by then-CEO Krish Mohip to act as “a bridge between the elected board and the CEO”. He swears he did that, and has the audacity to claim even now that Youngstown City Schools “doesn’t have a governance problem” despite the fact that Mohip ended up getting pushed off that bridge for doing the job he was hired to do. (WKBN-TV, Youngstown, 5/11/21)
- Back in the real world, Lt. Governor Jon Husted visited the Miami Valley Career Technology Center this week, extoling the virtues of CTE education, and Ohio’s dedicated career tech centers, as a means to drive talented students toward good-paying jobs. (Dayton Daily News, 5/11/21) “Drive” would have been a great verb for officials at Olmsted Falls City Schools to have used in this piece—in which they discuss with great glee the all-virtual school model they are going to run in the fall using lessons learned during their pandemic pivot. Unfortunately, the verb they chose was “lure”. As in, they know the names of all 22 resident students currently attending all-virtual charter schools and they will be dancing in the streets if this new plan “lures” any or all of them back. Which they fully expect will happen. Ew. (Cleveland.com, 5/12/21)
- To cap the week, here’s the hater-free version of the Metro Schools expansion story which was our sole focus on Monday. It not only sounds like a completely-positive deal when flowing from the pen of the Buckeye media juggernaut, it also sounds like a done deal. Nice! (Ohio State News, 5/14/21)
Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.
Policy Priority:
Topics:
