Gadfly Bites 6/19/24—Neighborly

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1. Yet more voucher grouching in the Statehouse News to start the day today. This time, their tale of woe is how sad it is for rural families to know there’s a voucher program but no (or not many, or none with lots of open seats) private schools in the area for them to access. Seriously? You guys are actually mad that a handful of kids are still stuck with only the traditional district might not be able to access a voucher? Surely you jest. (Statehouse News Bureau, 6/18/24) While the quoted grouchers may or may not be jesting about those specific deeply-held concerns, you might have noticed that the documented possibility of a concern by itself is nonetheless presented in that piece as reason enough for the state to just voluntarily cancel the entire voucher program (“Oops, we didn’t realize!”)—so as to eliminate the fully-documented potential (just ask them) for the sadness of those clearly deprived and downtrodden rural folks. But just in case that oh-so-logical outcome doesn’t actually happen based on the clearly-documented, fully-understandable concerns of possible harm, there are still other means by which to blow the whole thing up. Like in this other Statehouse News piece (anyone besides me sensing a theme this week?), where the future of the voucher program is unequivocally reported to be “uncertain” due to the pending voucher groucher lawsuit. I’m sure that this authoritative declaration, fully journalistically supported by the solid facts contained in the piece (just ask them), will deter tens of interested parents from pursuing an EdChoice Scholarship, even on the off chance that it doesn’t end up being struck down in court several months after the start of the next school year. (Statehouse News Bureau, 6/19/24)
   
   

2. Speaking of those dastardly religious private schools (they were; not me), here’s a great story about Cornerstone Christian Academy in northeast Ohio. Not only has CCA been supporting area homeschooled students’ academic needs for years, they will soon be sharing the benefits of an Ohio Department of Education and Workforce grant with those families as well. That is, throwing open the doors of their new, state-of-the-art STEM lab for a program to actually allow homeschoolers to learn the skills needed to earn numerous industry certifications. How very dastardly neighborly of them. (The News-Herald, 6/17/24)
   
   

3. And speaking of wasting public money on private education expenses (again, that was them; not me), here’s some good news for families who received but have not yet spent down their Afterschool Child Enrichment dough: More time to use their remaining funds. (Richland Source, 6/18/24) The previous clip is basically just the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s press release, which is nice and easily accessible without a subscription. But if you’d like the more solemn journalistic version of the story with a potted history of the program and more, you can use one of your limited free articles to read about it here. (Cleveland.com, 6/19/24)
   
   

4. Finally today, we learn that the new K-5 expansion of the Dayton Regional STEM School is on an “accelerated timeline” for completion. Which just so happens to be my favorite kind of timeline for news like this. Awesome! (Dayton Daily News, 6/18/24)

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