Gadfly Bites 6/16/21—“It’s a tuba thang, shorty.”

1. Fordham’s Aaron Churchill is one among several of the advocates quoted in this piece applauding the school choice-friendly aspects of the Senate’s budget bill. Naturally. (Center Square, 6/15/21)
    
2. Two great belated graduation stories here. It sounds like the pandemic pivot to fully-remote education was actually a godsend for Savannah Gehler, who just graduated from Kings High School outside Cincinnati after a long struggle due to family commitments and personal issues. She is justifiably proud of what she’s accomplished so far—and for her future in the Army National Guard—but from where I sit, it seems like full-time virtual school could have eased her burden and benefitted her journey long before now. (Journal-News, 6/11/21) This year’s graduates of Buckeye Community School, a dropout recovery charter in Marion, list their own sets of challenges to reaching their goal of a high school diploma. There are several notes of how the school’s self-paced model, hands-on counselors, and student-centric adaptations helped students complete their schooling. College and careers beckon. (Marion Star, 6/12/21)
   
   

3. The executive editor of redefinED compares Ohio to Arizona very unfavorably on the topic of economic segregation in education access, referencing Fordham’s studies on interdistrict open enrollment along with other Buckeye state data. While he ends by saying that things aren’t entirely hunky dory in Arizona, it’s hard to argue that we don’t come out looking pretty bad. (RedefinED, 6/14/21)
    
4. Speaking of school choice in Ohio, here’s news of another new charter school opening its doors in Toledo this fall. This one is focused on athletics and education, which sounds like a nice and welcome twist. While the brief news coverage seems to want to make a negative out of the school’s initial 225-student enrollment limit, that really would only be a problem if for some reason you think more kids than that are in need of an alternative. And you don’t think that, do you, news mavens? (WTOL-TV, Toledo, 6/14/21) And how about the OG of existing Toledo charters? Toledo School for the Arts is holding free drumline camps at parks across the city this summer—no experience required—thanks to funding support from city leaders. Nice! (WTOL-TV, Toledo, 6/14/21)

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