Gadfly Bites 8/16/21—BTS

1. The Dispatch is celebrating the first day of school today—for a year that they characterize as “more normal” than the last one. The families profiled are central Ohio suburbanites, including one with a child starting first grade in a nearby charter school. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/16/21)
    
2. That term “more normal” could actually have multiple meanings, I think. For example, the Ohio Department of Education reports that the number of students learning via traditional homeschooling grew by 25 percent between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020. Meanwhile, membership in the Ohio Homeschooling Parents nonprofit group is reportedly up 202 percent this year. (News 5, Cleveland, 8/16/21)
   
   

3. While the only family interviewed for this story about the state of student enrollment in Akron City Schools includes a district teacher in it, and while it sums up with the observation that “It must be nerve-wracking being a parent right now,” the bulk of the piece is really about how the loss of students in Akron City Schools (Wait, are we allowed to call it a “loss”? Perhaps “learner redistribution” or “osmotic diffusion of kiddos” or something?) affects Akron City Schools. Including their bottom line. (Akron Beacon Journal, 8/16/21)
    
4. Meanwhile, in what is arguably the bougiest of Ohio’s bougie burbs, the only thing on the minds of district officials is showing off the brand-new Upper Arlington High School—natatorium, food hall, performing arts space, and all—to the “thousands and thousands of people” that are coming through the building in the run up to the new school year. Ain’t nobody in that district worried about osmotic diffusion of kiddos or diminution of the budget numbers. (10TV, Columbus, 8/15/21)
   
   

5. Not to be outdone by its nearby showy suburb, Columbus City Schools is one of those rare school districts that owns a broadcasting license and the radio station on the air using that license. There’s a lot of information here about the total money suck that the station has been for a decade or more and discussion about why nothing has been decided about how to stop the money suck even after a big ol’ scandal regarding same. But, as someone who attended Columbus City Schools in the 70s—when the district was forced to close suddenly for weeks due to a frigid winter coupled with a simultaneous gas shortage and used TV, radio (!), the newspaper, and even the mail to keep learning going—I am most amused about the total bafflement of district officials and elected board members as to how the district might use its radio station to supplement education efforts these days. Can’t think of a thing, y’all? Nothing? (Columbus Dispatch, 8/15/21)

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