Gadfly Bites 1/11/23—Fool’s gold

1. New year, same as the old year, it seems. A legislative effort to overhaul K-12 education governance in the state is riling up the same folks this week, just as it did back in December. And the new bill hasn’t even officially dropped yet. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/10/23) But a little bit of newness is blooming. To wit: a new president was voted in to lead the state board of education yesterday. Some folks even seem happy about the choice…which in itself is fairly novel. Congratulations, President LaRue. (Gongwer Ohio, 1/10/23) Back to the old: A long-gestating cost report, called for in legislation signed in December 2020, was released this week looking at the funding structures to support English Language Learners in K-12 schools. The study recommends differentiating funding ELL students based on their academic performance, with emerging students, or those with the lowest English language skills, receiving more support than progressing students. Rather than treating—and funding—all ELL students the same. Makes some logical sense, doesn’t it? (Gongwer Ohio, 1/9/23)
   
   

2. Back down here on the ground, we’ve got more information on the ongoing transportation troubles in the Dayton area. Four charter schools and one private school have submitted complaints to the state asking that Dayton City Schools be investigated for non-compliance with state transportation laws. The fines for non-compliance reported thus far could total $750,000. Said a private school official in one complaint: “I am not sure they know what a transportation plan is.” Yowza. The district has, of course, lawyered up over the fine amount whole situation. (Dayton Daily News, 1/9/23) No school choice families are quoted in this piece, but transportation for district students in Cincinnati seems to be pretty messed up as well. A subhead to the story indicates it’s lack of actual buses (not drivers) that is to blame here. But we cannot rule out the fact that the district chose to include all 7^th and 8^th graders in their yellow bus transportation plans this year for the first time. It does not sound like any solution will be forthcoming in the short term. (WCPO-TV, Cincinnati, 1/10/22)
   
   

3. Finally today, actually below the ground, officials with Martins Ferry City Schools are working hard to fix issues being experienced in one of their schools since summer break ended. They’ve worked hard to dig deeply into the problem, shoring up weak spots, and trying to level the floor there. And now they are preparing to monitor the new status quo very closely so as to respond immediately to any new problems detected and keep more expensive and longer-term remediation from ever being necessary again. Nope. They are not talking about academics, nor indeed anything to do with students at all. They are, quite literally, talking about the floor of a school building. There is no word in this piece on how much it is costing to remediate the shifting pyrite situation, but we do learn that the district is spending a couple hundred thou for after school programming these days. (Times-Leader, 1/11/23)

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