- Again due to the publication timeline of Bites, I am lagging behind the biggest news. So it will come as no surprise to any of you that the latest update on the EdChoice program is that a citizens group and several private schools have banded together to sue the state over the delayed start of EdChoice applications. (Gongwer Ohio, 2/3/20) The one upside to not having to be “first and freshest” with breaking news is that I get to sit back and see the patterns in other folks’ coverage. To wit: No, those groups are not suing over “changes” to the program, despite this DDN headline which says so. (Dayton Daily News, 2/3/20) And they’re definitely not suing to “block a deal”, per the Daily Record’s headline. (Wooster Daily Record, 2/3/20)
- To reiterate, the lawsuit is over the delay in the application window. As anyone who has ever applied or renewed at a private school knows, now is the time for those commitments to be made, contracts to be signed, and those deposits paid for next school year. But folks who are cool with the delay say that parents should just chill out. It’s early, man. Meanwhile, we learned this week that Kindergarten registration opens soon at Allen East Elementary, a traditional district school in Northwest Ohio; parents were told to get on via the actual newspaper. Yes, this is deeply ironic, as I’m sure you recognize. But it’s just the middle school there that is/would be EdChoice eligible so maybe it's only contact irony. (Lima News, 2/4/20)
- For whatever reason, legislators seem to want to get some sort of compromise on “The Voucher Question” done via legislation before the April 1 deadline and without involving the courts. At a forum sponsored by the Associated Press yesterday, House and Senate leaders both indicated this preference… (Gongwer Ohio, 2/4/20) …but the two chambers seem to have some substantive differences in their positions that will have to be resolved. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 2/4/20)
- No matter when some legislative common ground is found, there still will be the question of a “vehicle”. That is, a piece of legislation in which to stuff the voucher sausage and get it passed. Speaking of which, I am glad to note here that someone else is concerned about the fates of those two bills used as “vehicles” by the voucher grouchers last week…before being dropped like hot potatoes. (Ohio Capital Journal, 2/5/20)
- Staying on the topic of court cases for a moment, the Ohio Supreme Court this week decided to kick one of the Hills & Dales cases to the Stark County Board of Elections. You remember the case I’m talking about – where a handful of village residents want their homes rezoned to a neighboring school district. But it appears that it’s actually larger than that. This part of the case seems as though it would rezone the entire village into the other district. If so, I guess I can see why it’s been so tortuous thus far. The board of elections is supposed to see whether they can cram this petition onto the upcoming March ballot, despite being way late in the game. This is separate, I gather, from the effort (also in the Ohio Supreme Court) to invalidate the state law that was meant to make such transfers easier in the first place. Sheesh! Twisty. (Canton Repository, 2/3/20)
- More changes are happening in Lorain City Schools under their interim CEO, again aimed at altering the operating framework that brought the district up from an F to a D last year. Link (Elyria Chronicle, 2/5/20) Speaking of changes, the state is piloting its new teacher evaluation system—dubbed OTES 2.0—in a number of volunteer schools. Here is an interesting and detailed look at a couple of charter schools in Lorain County participating as pilot sites. (Elyria Chronicle, 2/2/20)
- Probably an apt point to mention this: a brief editorial opining on Ohio Excels’ new survey of parent attitudes toward school report cards. (Morning Journal News, 2/5/20)
- The editors above conclude with, “Letting parents know how schools are doing is a key facet of the ‘report card’ system. Use of A-F grades makes that perfectly clear.” This is a very good point to keep in mind when looking at the next two pieces. First up, the Dispatch covered the release of the latest “Child Opportunity Index” report. Ohio’s cities fared quite poorly when it comes to opportunity gaps between wealthy and impoverished neighborhoods. Educational opportunities were part of the report’s calculus, but seem to be downplayed in the piece. Instead, housing, healthcare, and jobs were emphasized, most of which have nothing to do with kids’ own opportunities. The education issues covered focus mainly on third party afterschool opportunities rather than the educational opportunities provided by districts and schools during the school day. Which seems kind of important. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/2/20) This line of thought reaches its ultimate conclusion for me when I contemplate this commentary piece published in the Dispatch a couple of days later. We have a report which delineates the lack of educational opportunities in many of Ohio’s impoverished urban neighborhoods (probably the rural ones too). We have report cards which show a concentration of very poor performing schools in those neighborhoods. Parents know what an “F” means. If the schools do not or cannot improve, families will want better alternatives. They will want more opportunities. The Dispatch commentator reminds us of the Move to PROSPER program here in Columbus, about which we’ve spoken in these Bites before. It is an effort to move low-income families to neighborhoods of greater opportunities for both adults and children, including education, employment, and rent supports. And these neighborhoods are really determined by school district. As the commenter says: “If it’s too hard to improve a neighborhood, then find a better one. Think about it — that’s what people of means do.” Personally, I agree with this sentiment 100 percent (and having met several of the families being helped by Move to PROSPER, I can tell you that it does exactly what it says on the tin). But I would actually ask the question: Have we—the people with the power to make true change—really done all we can to improve these neighborhoods? If people are leaving already or are hungry for alternatives because they can’t leave, I believe it means we have either failed or given up. Which do you suppose it is? (Columbus Dispatch, 2/4/20)
- After that bit of personal commentary, I won’t add too much more to this piece, in which we learn that Columbus City Schools’ elected board of education would rather allow an unused school building to remain dilapidated and offer to lease it out as-is than to sell it outright to a high-performing charter school network who would buy it and rehab it and use it to educate Columbus’ students to the highest possible level. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/4/20)
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