Gadfly Bites 8/28/24—“It just never crossed my mind not to trust my educational system.”

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1. “There is an argument that we fund all students in the public school system regardless of their family’s income. Our state has moved to the idea, and I think it’s a reasonable one, that we should provide some level of financial support for every student who wants to attend a private school.” These are the only sane words in a Pennsylvania-originated voucher story published yesterday that is otherwise a very negative, multi-state take on the topic. That tiny handful of sane words comes from Fordham’s own Aaron Churchill, who is at least the right person to talk to if you want to create some semblance of “balance” in what otherwise feels like bit ol’ hit piece on private school choice. (Erie Times-News, 8/27/24)
   
   

2. Aaron is also quoted in this piece, which reveals that Akron City Schools received nearly $801,000 more in funding from the state to buy Science of Reading-aligned curriculum materials than it should have. The story provides plenty of details as to how the overpayment occurred, which are all pretty embarrassing, and explains how this error quite literally robbed other districts of funding they required (but did not get since it was already disbursed elsewhere) to actually comply with the state-mandated switch. “Having the dollars go out based on honest, accurate information is really important,” says Aaron, with exceeding diplomacy. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more on this story soon, although I bet it will take longer than is seemly to get that extra cash back. (Akron Beacon Journal, 8/28/24)
   
   

3. Let’s stop for a moment of good news before we delve further into the journalistic mire. Big party in Salineville, Ohio, last Friday as state and local officials gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony at Utica Shale Academy. They were all there to celebrate the completion of a Connecting Communities Through Workforce Training project at the popular and fast-growing charter school. A state workforce development grant and a partnership with a number of community organizations led to the creation of a training center for certified health workers housed at the school. And there’s more to come as well. Awesome. USA! USA! USA! (Morning Journal, 8/27/24)
   
   

4. Feeling happier now? Good. You’re ready to go back to the mire, then. Multiple families of students with special needs are coming forward with some rather scary allegations against Pickerington City Schools this week. The basic issue, it seems, is a severe lack of paraprofessionals to provide required support for students as called for in their IEPs. This is bad enough, but at least a common, understandable issue today. However, it seems from these parental reports that the district has elected to “deal with” the problem by simply not providing any such support for several years now. This includes disputing IEP requirements about whether a para was needed and seemingly allowing the family of a non-verbal child to believe a paraprofessional was assigned to her when no such staff member existed. Awful to hear. (NBC 4 News, Columbus, 8/26/24)
   
   

5. Let’s end today’s clips talking about transportation. (I mean, how bad could it be after that preceding story?) We learned on Monday that Westerville City Schools (yes, that Westerville) has a protocol in place that dismisses high school and middle school students early—and staggered—on any days when the administration believes there will not be enough bus drivers to bring them home all at the same time. We learn how understaffed the district is on drivers this year—so bad that the shortening of the school day for the entire district has already occurred twice in the first two weeks of the year—and how many times that protocol was used in the previous two school years. What we don’t learn? How they all got to school on all those days in the first place! (10 TV News, Columbus, 8/26/24) Maybe those Westerville kids took rideshares? Seems to be a popular alternative for Dayton City Schools families, even with the strictures that rideshare companies impose on transportation of unaccompanied minors. However, some miscommunication at the start of the year has caused some families to think the district was trying to curtail their use. “The district was not saying families could NOT use these services…,” said Dayton’s transpo director. “Our goal was to prevent inconveniences to families due to trip cancellations.” (Dayton Daily News, 8/27/24) Charter school families and leaders addressed the elected board of Columbus City Schools last night, begging them to attempt some other fix to their transportation woes than declaring a mass of charter and private school students “impractical to transport”. This includes a grandparent who lost her job because she needed to be available to drive her grandchildren to school. The elected board members heard it all…and then voted unanimously to make the impracticality determination final. Charming. (ABC 6 News, Columbus, 8/27/24) Same thing in Cleveland Metropolitan School District, where the board yesterday deemed it “impractical” to transport 1,700 district-resident students who opt for charter, private, and “other specialty schools”. They, like the Columbus choice students, will be offered a $600 payment to provide their own transportation…but of course that is pretty low and will only available as a reimbursement at the end of the school year nine long months from now. Likely untenable for most families affected. (Signal Cleveland, 8/28/24) No idea what school district(s) students attending Mahoning Valley Community School live in. But they will not have MVCS families to kick around this year, as the Youngstown-area charter school has taken charge of its own busing (via third party contractor). “We believe this opportunity will significantly improve attendance and remove barriers to education,” said the school supe, “in order to allow our students to be successful.” Say it loud, ma’am. So everyone else will hear. (WFMJ-TV, Youngstown, 8/27/24)

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