News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
- Fordham senior policy analyst Jessica Poiner was a guest on Cincinnati Edition yesterday, joining the panel to discuss chronic absenteeism among students. Specifically: Positive approaches to curbing what remains a big problem in Cincy and elsewhere. Good stuff, although bypassing Jessica on the state policy question was probably a miss. (WVXU-FM, Cincinnati, 9/5/24)
- Some excellent details in this piece looking at Science of Reading adoption in various Summit County school districts. Everyone sounds like they are fully on board. There’s a nice bonus citation of our recent report on the topic as well. (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/5/24) Akron area mom (and former elementary reading specialist) Jennie McGahee is super happy with the SoR mandate in Ohio and gives credit where she believes it is due: “I was thrilled when the science of reading movement gained traction across the United States. I knew Gov. Mike DeWine would take an interest in pivoting Ohio toward mandating the science of reading because of our state data and his wife’s interest in early childhood literacy.” Nice! (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/1/24) And what does the governor himself have to say on the topic? “What [teachers] universally tell us is, ‘wow, we’re seeing much better results,” he told reporters in Cleveland yesterday. “We know it’s going to make a huge, huge difference” for students. (WKYC-TV, Cleveland, 9/5/24)
- This little preview of a new charter school in the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus was published on Monday, looking forward to the start of school on Tuesday… (NBC 4 News, Columbus, 9/3/24)
- One assumes things were a bit less positive when the sun rose over Franklinton on that inaugural day. Why? Because bus transportation for charter school students in Columbus has been a disaster from the start of the school year, as we have been documenting in these clips. Gongwer reminded us in their Wednesday edition that Attorney General Dave Yost had threatened to sue Columbus City Schools if they did not reverse course on their declaration of hundreds (if not more than 1,000) charter, private, and STEM school students as “impractical” to transport, calling it an “apparent new strategy of non-compliance”. (Gongwer Ohio, 9/4/24) The distraught families who had reached out to one local TV news station for help were ecstatic over the AG’s response: “Our voices were heard.” However, this was premature as the district had not yet responded to the state’s ultimatum either way. However, they did respond to the question as to how many students were declared “impractical”: 1,930 kids on 470 routes! Wow. (ABC6 News, 9/5/24) One of the other local news channels found a couple of folks who were convinced that the state mandate to transport these students was an impossible ask of Columbus City Schools. And by the end of it, AG Yost was not feeling optimistic about a positive response either. (10TV News, Columbus, 9/4/24) Late in the day yesterday, Columbus City Schools responded to the cease-and-desist letter, refusing to do either and explaining their justification for same. (10TV News, Columbus, 9/5/24) As promised, the attorney general sued the district late yesterday, going straight to the Ohio Supreme Court and including a writ of mandamus to compel Columbus to begin transportation of those “impractical” students while the matter is adjudicated. (Ohio Attorney General’s office, 9/5/24) One of the things that Yost’s office appears to be looking forward to most eagerly is receiving the discovery of all the communication around the “impractical” designation decision making by district leaders. I concur that it should make for fascinating reading. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/5/24)
Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.
Policy Priority:
Topics:
