- We’ll start this week with some sermonizing. No, not me. The chair of the department of education at Malone University, who had an op-ed in the Repository this weekend. She provides some suggestions—beyond more money of course—to help boost the number of young people choosing to go into teaching. She says it is about a calling and that Gen Zers who want to serve are those who should look into teaching. But it’s “not for the faint of heart,” she says. “The best classroom experience is the result of a teacher who understands the complexities of student development, and a teacher who truly feels called to nurture students during a crucial developmental stage can turn a good classroom experience into a life-changing one.” Oh, and there’s also the pesky “completing state-mandated paperwork and testing to regulations rather than their curriculum” to deal with. I’m sorry, what was the point of this op-ed again? (Canton Repository, 4/24/22) Let’s see if the same topic is covered any better by actual journalists. Ummmm… Nope. “I think sometimes we are the worst advertisers for our own profession,” said a former teacher and principal who now works as a central office flack in the ‘burbs. (Dayton Daily News, 4/22/22)
- Meanwhile, the superintendent of Dover City Schools has got a very long list of “successes” she feels that her district can tout as the 2021-22 school year comes to an end. Not one of them has to do with actual academics. You know: teachers teaching and students learning. Are y’all detecting a theme here today? I sure am. (Times Reporter, 4/24/22)
- In other news, Toledo City Schools is celebrating a boost in its credit rating from Moody’s, a situation which comes, everyone says, from a balance of good and bad factors. (Just because I am occasionally a brat, I’m going to list them in reverse order to the article.) To wit: “The district's weak economic fundamentals and declining population trends that will likely limit student enrollment growth over the long term” are balanced with “the district’s steady trend of healthy financial operations over the years, steady bolstering of its fund balances and reserves, and improved academic performance.” There is no evidence given for the latter at all—and unless they’re talking about graduation rate, there won’t be any they can give—but the former is related to the fact that the district has not had to ask for a levy in nearly 10 years (and will probably be able to go a couple more years, so says the supe). However, way deep down we also hear that “the rating also considers the budgetary support of substantial COVID-related federal funding [$198 million altogether]. Multiple silver linings, then. (Toledo Blade, 4/24/22)
- Let’s continue talking about money, shall we? (When are we not talking about money around here, really?) Some weirdness in this story about the jockeying between the Ohio Department of Education and Groveport Madison local schools with regard to that whopping find levied by the state upon GM for failure to properly transport resident students exercising school choice. I don’t understand really what ODE is up to in its dismissal/consolidation efforts but I do understand that the court is not buying the district’s lame excuse of imminent harm from starting to pay the fine right freakin’ now…by which they actually mean a year late and counting. (Gongwer Ohio, 4/22/22)
- And finally today, sticking with the topic of money, nearly 150 private schools across the state—those serving a significant percentage of low-income students—are at last in line for federal Covid-relief funding more than two years after the start of the pandemic. Amazing. Also amazing: It seems that Ohio’s long history of state support for private schools through various established channels is what has allowed this to happen when, we are told, “nonpublic schools generally are not permitted to directly receive federal funding under federal law.” Lots to be happy about here if you ask me. (Gongwer Ohio, 4/22/22)
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