Tis the season, apparently, for reinvention in Ohio’s charter school sector. One such reinvention has made big news (you know the one I’m talking about), but another has occurred under the radar until now.
Some dude was busted last week for receiving and selling public transit bus passes stolen from Columbus City Schools and intended for students in lieu of yellow bus transportation.
ECOT’s transformation from general online school to dropout recovery school drew some additional ink this week. First up, the Dispatch suggests this is an effort by the school to avoid certain areas of accountability.
Fordham is namechecked in this story noting the first day of school in Columbus. Specifically, the crack journalists at Columbus’s Fox affiliate discussed the new lowered graduation requirements for this year’s seniors.
Lots of folks in the Dayton area seem to be angst-ing over ongoing expansion of the EdChoice Scholarship program to give vouchers to more students from low-income families each year. Even the comments section is more lively than usual for the DDN.
Research continues to point to the correlation between socioeconomic status and educational outcomes. Three new initiatives in the Buckeye State are cause for cautious optimism that old methods of addressing poverty may be giving way to innovation and new promise, especially for our youngest citizens.
Fordham’s Chad Aldis is quoted as saying that online schools are “not going away” in this piece from earlier in the week in which Columbus editors opine in support of Auditor Yost’s (…) recent guidance regarding charter school funding claw backs. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/17/17)
Our own Chad Aldis, an expert in charter school policy if the press it to be believed, is quoted in this new piece regarding pending legislation designed to “return” money clawed back from charter schools to the district schools from which it was “taken”.
July and August might otherwise be sleepy months best reserved for recovering from Ohio’s biennial budget process, lounging beachside, and avoiding one’s smartphone and computer. The downtime also creates space to reflect.
As all my loyal Gadfly Bites subscribers know, your humble clips compiler is consistent in believing that, aside from you, very few others take this little news clips lark seriously (and that both of you should probably find additional hobbies; just sayin’).
In case you missed it, State Auditor Dave Yost (…) issued some guidance this week. What’s the big deal, I hear you ask. Doesn’t he do that literally every week? Well, probably.
But we do. Really.
Somewhere between the right and the left – between the un-nuanced mantras of personal responsibility and big government – lie most of the problems related to poverty, as well as most of the solutions. So said Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance in his opening remarks at a Columbus Metropolitan Club event in Columbus last week.
Contract talks in Dayton resume today with some distance still between the two sides. Folks seem upbeat but it will be a long day today and probably Wednesday too, the only other scheduled bargaining day. In between – a school board meeting.
Contract negotiations between the teachers union and district administration resumed in Dayton yesterday after nearly two months off. Those negotiations were to begin with the two sides sitting in separate rooms. That way nothing could go wrong. Nice.
Dayton school board members are not the only ones preparing for a possible teachers strike to start the school year: the union ratcheted up the tension to at least “triple dare” by voting this week to authorize a 10-day strike notice ahead of resumed contract negoti
