Gadfly Bites 7/8/24—Invasion of the Bougie Snatchers!

News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.

1. It’s sad to learn that the editorial board of the Columbus Dispatch is perfectly OK with the leaders of Columbus City Schools flouting state law which requires that underutilized district school buildings be offered first to charter and STEM school operators before being offered to other potential buyers or auctioned on the open market. “We doubt CCS wants to aid its competitors by handing over buildings that could help charters become more successful.” Sad, but not surprising to me in the slightest. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/7/24) But I will admit to being caught completely off guard to learn that there is someone out there in the world (an Oscar-winner, no less) who connects the proliferation of homeschoolers and charter school students to the demise of small movie theaters, and leveraged that patently absurd linkage to weasel a $100K grant from the streaming media company Plex. This money is to be used to update the marquee of the Little Art Theater, a small cinema in the bougiest of Ohio’s small towns. So weird. (Washington Post, 7/6/24)
   
   

2. Speaking of sob stories (were we, really?), I think we’re supposed to feel sorry for the well-appointed school district in the very expensive and very exclusive town of Bay Village along Lake Erie in northeast Ohio, based on the tone of this piece. What’s the issue? An increase in voucher usage among folks who live there but opt to send their children to (even bougier?) private schools (how is that even possible?). Yes, thanks to universal eligibility, these folks are now getting a tiny fraction of their tuition covered via EdChoice. Scary. (IdeaStream Public Media, Cleveland, 7/8/24)
   
   

3. I can totally see what all these well-heeled and fortunate folks are afraid of when I read this description of the brand new classical education model charter school coming to the Columbus/Dublin area in the fall. Can’t you? Terrifying. Surely this will mean the end of every mom-and-pop movie theater in the area! Oh, the humanities! (Columbus Dispatch, 7/8/24)
   
   

4. And indeed the voucher grouchers of Lake Erie’s gold coast must be quaking in fear after reading this glowing description of student life at the Greater Dayton School, which provides a private school experience (handmade food served family-style, a beautiful riverfront campus, free onsite medical support, two teachers in every classroom, high expectations, etc.) for low-income families who opt in—at a cost of $0 per year to them. The founder tells us the cost of supporting students to the level he wants is about $30K per year, paid for by about $6,000 in EdChoice vouchers (all students are low income) and the rest made up from his own foundation’s coffers. Scary stuff indeed. (The 74, 7/8/24) All joking aside, many thanks to Patrick O’Donnell for giving us our first proper look inside of the Greater Dayton School, especially focusing on the kids’ experience. It sounds as good as promised.

Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.