- This headline, as with almost every legislation-related headline that includes it, misuses the term “limbo” in referencing the topic of education funding reform. (13ABC News, Toledo, 5/22/21)
- That term is misused in exactly the same context in this piece as well. There’s a whole lot of other words in here too—discussing the probability that Dayton City Schools’ finances may be in the red at some point in the next five years, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in hand at the moment. All of those words, in my estimation, combine to ultimately cast doubt on that prediction. And the elected school board president seems to be of a similar mind, telling the DDN, “…[N]o treasurer can see five years into the future.”. (Dayton Daily News, 5/24/21)
- I know you guys love when I juxtapose clips without any detailed commentary. Here’s another one of those. Superintendents of several northeast Ohio suburban school districts discuss their schools’ pandemic experiences at length. (Cleveland.com, 5/24/21) Meanwhile, northeast Ohio high school student Blake Wolfe is graduating with 13 years of perfect attendance. I am hopeful that you love these things because you’re trying to figure out why exactly I’ve juxtaposed the particular clips…and not because you don’t have to read my commentary. Yeah. I’m sure that’s what it is. (Newsweek.com, 5/21/21)
- No such luck this time, y’all—now you gotta hear me out. These last clips are tied together in my mind by three things: First is that the students discussed all have some out-of-the-ordinary circumstances surrounding their schooling experience. Second is that all were accommodated to successful completion in some quite clever ways. Third is that it seems to me that many other students across Ohio could be accommodated and assisted in their education journeys in similar ways…if only more folks knew how it all was done. OK. With all that in mind…let’s bring on the clips! Longtime Gadfly Bites subscribers will no doubt recall the story of the Hamad family of Canal Winchester: ferocious academic prodigies who accelerated themselves to early high school, college, grad school, and now law school degrees. Their accomplishments in a few short years are nothing short of dizzying. We get a tiny glimpse in this piece of all of the connections, programs, and degree combos of which the kids took advantage (not even counting interdistrict open enrollment, which was the initial catalyst but is only alluded to here), but the family could obviously hold a master class in such things. And definitely should! (Columbus Dispatch, 5/22/21) Did you know that jail personnel are able to bend a lot of rules to help an incarcerated individual complete high school? Neither did I, and neither, it seems, did the Stark County Sheriff’s Office. Until they received a request on behalf of one young man recently, which started a cascade of assistive efforts that sound like nothing short of a TV drama series. You’ll have to read it to believe it, I suspect. This is a set of circumstances which unfortunately recurs regularly around the state, and yet the Sheriff’s Office spokesmen had never heard of such a request nor do they know of any of their peers fulfilling such a request. This story—including a how-to guide from school district and law enforcement personnel—should probably be shouted from the rooftops, y’all. (Akron Beacon Journal, 5/20/21) And finally, here is the fantastic story of another member of the Class of 2021, a young woman who defied ADHD, bullying, multiple foster care placements, and chronic illness to not only get her schooling back on track but also to complete her school work months ahead of graduation day. It was almost entirely done online (starting way before that was cool), it required some hands-on help including home visits from teachers, and some strong kudos are apparently due to the program which “combined classwork with a job and it required her to turn in weekly time sheets”. As she puts it: “My freshman and sophomore years, I was not that good of a student. I realized this was my education and I was not doing it right. I asked if I could do CVIP. I feel like it gave me a lot of focus.” Next stop: vet tech. That CVIP sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? Probably a godsend to any number of other kids whose lives sound a lot like hers, right? I heartily concur. So what’s CVIP? Hell if I know. No information is provided in the piece, nor on the district’s website, and even Google is not my friend. Hey CVIP folks? If you hear this, I think your brand could use a boost. Like, a really big one. Just sayin’. (Journal-News, 5/24/21)
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