Gadfly Bites 6/22/26—The urban/rural non-divide

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1. The question of whether Cleveland Metropolitan School District (and a couple other rapidly-shrinking urban districts across the state) is flouting Ohio law by not offering their closed and underutilized buildings to charter and private schools goes decently high-profile in this piece. The critics arguing CMSD is not following the spirit (and probably the letter) of the law include a state legislator, a Cleveland city councilmember, and our own Aaron Churchill. Interestingly, CMSD simultaneously argues that they have actually offered some schools to charters recently but didn’t get any “viable proposals” out of it (hmmm…..), and that they didn’t even have to do that much because they somehow have two years to decide on all closed buildings before offering them to anyone. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to for now, I guess, but at least everyone does seem to agree that the pending SB 311—which we have discussed in this capacity before—will both define the process unambiguously and prove hard to evade should it become law. Which is nice. (Cleveland.com, 6/21/26)
   
   

2. Similarly in this piece about rural schools, district leaders assert that school choice is somehow “draining” funding from them (and other districts too) and that it’s doubly harmful in their case because rural students have little or no access to such choices themselves. In the name of balanced journalism, several critics are quoted disputing those assertions, but honestly it’s the one big fact left out of the piece that would truly burst their bubble. And that is the continuing loss of student enrollment in these districts, same as larger urban ones. Alexander Local Schools—the primary “victim” of…whatever they think is going on at the state level—has less than 1,300 students currently. Not only are there single-building daycare centers in Ohio larger than this, student enrollment out there has shrunk by nearly 200 kids over just the last five years. Forget about vouchers or “neglect” by the state: The existential question is when are y’all going to give up the delusion of returning to days of increasing enrollment and start planning to dissolve, consolidate, or convert to a single K-12 charter school? It’s not too late for you to control the process…but it probably will be very soon. (Columbus Dispatch, 6/22/26)

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