Gadfly Bites 6/14/24—Money to burn

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1. The elected school board in the bougiest school district in central Ohio (that’s Upper Arlington City Schools, if I do say so myself), whose resident families stand to gain the least should they decide to pursue an EdChoice Scholarship, voted this week to spend a portion of their state per-pupil funding to battle the state in court via the voucher groucher lawsuit. Charming. (Columbus Dispatch, 6/12/24) Meanwhile, the elected school board in Groveport-Madison Local Schools voted this week to table a resolution authorizing joining the lawsuit. This despite the fact that hundreds of district-resident students opt for vouchers instead of the district schools (as we are told in the piece) and despite the fact that G-M is still embroiled in whatever remains of the state’s effort to enforce transportation compliance for charter, STEM, and, yes, private school students (which is not included in the piece, but your humble clips compiler has a long memory for these things). Guess the elected school board members figured they had more important things to contend with than paying somebody else’s lawyers…at least for now. (Columbus Dispatch, 6/13/24)
    
2. Speaking of school districts with money to burn (were we?): Here’s a look at the portfolio of closed buildings and other vacant properties currently owned by Columbus City Schools. Taking away the rhetoric (and there’s lots of it here, don’t you worry), the math goes like this: $400K in annual maintenance expenses. $134K in annual rental income. And $0 in sales on these multi-million-dollar properties. (Columbus Dispatch, 6/12/24)
    
3. Meanwhile, oops! The Department of Education and Workforce reported this week that schools of all types across the state—along with other student-focused entities like career centers and county boards of developmental disabilities—were overpaid to the tune of around $30 million this fiscal year. It all stems, we are told, from incomplete information provided by an unknown number of districts at the start of the funding cycle, which led to erroneous calculations of per-student funding requirements for the schools themselves, voucher program participants, and more. Examples given: Columbus City Schools was overpaid by $883,000; Cleveland Metropolitan School District by $696,000. (Cleveland.com, 6/13/24) The good news is that the legislature plans to pass a fix in the next couple of weeks so that the same problem doesn’t recur in the new fiscal year. The even better news is that the legislature does not plan to try and recoup any of the additional funding schools and other entities received in error, with the Senate President declaring it “messy” to try and do so now. (Gongwer Ohio, 6/13/24)
   
   

4. In other news, ACLD School & Learning Center—a private school in the Youngstown area that serves student on the autism spectrum and those living and growing with other learning challenges—is celebrating receipt of a very generous private donation toward the expansion of their campus, which is currently underway. More programming, more space for students, more awesomeness, all coming soon. Amazing! (Yes, they do accept Jon Peterson Special Needs and Ohio Autism Scholarship students. I checked ahead of time because I knew you would ask.) (Vindy.com, 6/13/24) A two-for-one report of good news to end the week. Heir Force Community School in Lima is on the grow, planning to add room for more than 100 additional students in its new facility by fall 2025. Toward the end of the piece, we also learn that Temple Christian School is expanding to house more students after its enrollment grew by 15 percent last school year. (Probably due to those EdChoice voucher students that they accept. Yep. I checked them too.) Woohoo! (Lima News, 6/13/24)

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