Gadfly Bites 9/29/23—Ultimate

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

1. Our own Chad Aldis was a guest on recent episode of Ideastream’s The State of Ohio Show. In it, he is quizzed on several aspects of the EdChoice voucher expansion, Fordham’s past research on EdChoice, and the voucher grouchers’ pending lawsuit. (State of Ohio, Ideastream, 9/22/23)
   
   

2. Cleveland.com columnist and editorial board member Eric Foster has some powerful thoughts on what needs to change in education in northeast Ohio following another disastrous report card showing for too many schools and districts up there. It’s important stuff, fully informed by his own life experiences. Will anyone hear him? (Cleveland.com, 9/27/23) Relatedly, officials in Youngstown City Schools are, in my own opinion, eking far too vigorous a celebration out of the meager positive notes in their own report card. Taking a cue from Mr. Foster’s opinion: Students there are not well-served by your premature claims of improvement. (Vindy.com, 9/27/23)
   
   

3. You can now add Toledo City Schools to the list of completely blinkered Ohio districts closing their doors for the entire day on April 8, 2024. There will be a rare solar eclipse visible in parts of the state that day. At 3:10 pm. For about 8 minutes. But instead of extending the school day and embracing the once-in-a lifetime science learning opportunity dropped in their laps free of charge, our schools (and the public safety officials advising them) are acting like end-of-the-world nutters who would prefer everyone to hunker down in their homes rather than have to chance a bit of heavy traffic and the possibility of spotty wi-fi. The horror! (Toledo Blade, 9/28/23)

My very observant long-time subscribers (kveðjur to all tólf of you!) will surely have noticed a countdown theme in our headlines this week which had nothing to do with the stories covered. Here’s why: Gadfly Bites is going on a big vacation, starting today. Your humble clips compiler will be off-the-grid (on ice, or á ís as some folks say) for two weeks. Returning on Monday, October 16. I reckon we’ll have plenty of news to snark about. See you then!

Your humble clips compiler—Jeff Murray ([email protected])