Gadfly Bites 3/12/21 – One year later, give or take

1. Today marks one year since Governor DeWine announced schools would close in response to the oncoming coronavirus pandemic and lots of media outlets are jumping on the “one year later” bandwagon with some doom, a whole lot of gloom, a shot at lessons learned, and a ton of enlightening anecdotes. Perhaps it is the soreness in my arm and some mild brain fog talking (you know what I mean), but I personally am not finding this “education has changed so much in a year” narrative all that convincing at the moment. (Columbus Dispatch, 3/12/21)
    
2. I ask you: what really has changed since the first school closures were announced as “an extended spring break” last March? As the piece above indicates to me, very little is different: Some kids have access to a much better education than others, just like it was back in pre-rona times. In this one, a national piece with a Columbus anecdote, I was reminded that some kids have access to gifted services, and some don’t. Just like before. (AP, Via ABC News, 3/12/21)
   
   

3. School choice is still seen as evil by many many folks. Maybe more evil than before? (The 74, 3/10/21)
    
4. Some folks are still squawking about Academic Distress Commissions like angry chickens. (Chronicle-Telegram, 3/12/21)
   
   

5. And no one is more surprised than me that we’re still talking about the Toledo Weed Guy and his college scholarships for Scott High School grads…let alone talking about it with such glowing positivity. (Toledo Blade, 3/10/21)
    
6. But it does seem that there are a couple of actual changes worth at least a mention. For one, that true Covid-era innovation (of the decidedly downmarket variety) the whipsaw—with all its surefire parent-angering qualities—looks to be staying with us for a while even after the land is aflow with milk and honey Merck and Janssen. (NBC4i, Columbus, 3/11/21)
   
   

7. And while some version of the college enrollment crash was playing out long before anyone ever heard of SARS-CoV-2, a year’s worth of the pandemic polka sure seems to have helped make the case that the state should bail out higher ed right now. (ABC6 News, Columbus, 3/11/21)

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