- I’m not sure this piece reads as entirely objective journalism, but perhaps that’s because it is unusual to see support for the resumption of state testing as the lead in stories on the topic, with the other side presented as an alternative. Interesting. Who’da thunk your humble clips compiler was so conditioned by the status quo? (The Center Square, 9/11/20)
- Let’s see if I can get my curmudgeonly bona fides back into whack with this piece. In it, we hear that Toledo City Schools officials promise a better second week of remote learning than occurred in the first week. Of course, the first week was so awful that nearly anything would be an improvement over a cyberattack, calling in the FBI, the inability to schedule classes for any new student, and taking virtual attendance via pencil and paper. (Toledo Blade, 9/12/20)
- Yeah. That feels better, although I’m not so hard-hearted that I will disparage grammy and pop-pop helping their grandchildren navigate remote learning while the kids’ parents must work. I am perplexed at the idea, stated here by nana and gramps, that any of Ohio’s traditional e-schools simply provide the curriculum while “they do most of the teaching.” I’m pretty sure that ain’t how it works. (News5, Cleveland, 9/11/20)
- In the end, there’s nothing more likely to get me to go into full crank mode than the topic of school transportation, especially the neverending sorry saga of Dayton City Schools. In this piece, we learn again how woeful—and costly—was the effort to boost high school student attendance by buying RTA passes for students. We learn again how that was followed by a doubling (tripling?) down on same by paying millions to RTA to buy buses, hire drivers, and devise routes that literally no one wanted. We learn again of the nebulous “plan” to foist those RTA bus routes onto charter and private school students as young as six so that yellow buses could transport only district school attendees. Thank rona that never happened. So what’s new in the story? Dayton City Schools has cancelled its five year, multimillion dollar contract with RTA and will go back to the drawing board to try and figure out how to actually transport kids to their schools when they start going back to class in-person. It is somewhat amusing to me to find out that yes, in fact the only yellow buses transporting kids in Dayton right now are those going to charter and private schools currently teaching in-person classes. It is far less amusing to me to read that a school board member’s suggestion to provide future RTA passes free for the handful of families of older students who might want them was downplayed by the superintendent because the same accommodation would have to be provided to students utilizing school choice. The gall! And just to assure you, my loyal Gadfly Bites subscribers (love and thanks to all 15 of you!) that my full rhetorical crustiness will never be threatened again: I can report that I am also prepping my outrage face in the eventuality that someone suggests RTA keep the proceeds for those school-only buses bought with district money and which RTA now says they will sell. (Dayton Daily News, 9/12/20)
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