- Some nice words for Ohio in this opinion piece written by the Senior Vice President of the Commonwealth Foundation in Pennsylvania. Specifically, he lauds Ohio’s recent expansion of school choice—in all its forms—via the state budget bill. He hopes his own state will follow suit. (RealClearEd, 8/8/23) In related news, private school leaders in Dayton are anticipating an enrollment bump—this year, next year, or both—in the wake of EdChoice eligibility expansion to near-universal levels. (Dayton Daily News, 8/9/23)
- Those private school leaders don’t explain why they think lots of parents will be looking for new schools for their kids beyond the increased availability of vouchers, which is very nice of them. I am not as nice (it has been said), so allow me to propose some reasons on their behalf, using my favorite source: The words of district employees as quoted in the media. First up: The superintendent of North College Hill City Schools is giving us some more details on their brand new four-day school week due to start soon. Feels to me like a huge burden is being put on parents here as the supe describes it, whose work weeks (I feel confident in saying) still include Mondays no matter what dude seems to think. (Spectrum News 1, 8/7/23) Speaking of back to school, the annual celebrations in Lorain City Schools had a little focus on kids…and a lot of focus on the serendipitous end of state oversight in the perennially-underperforming district. I don’t think any parent could read those quotes and identify what has improved in terms of education in that district. I reckon they would have a different version of the story if any of them were given the chance to be quoted on the record as freely as union members and current district leadership…which is, as I know you know, the same as the old leadership which ran the district directly into state oversight. Just sayin’. (WOSU-FM, Columbus, 8/7/23) Cincinnati City Schools is one of the very few districts to offer Montessori education in a public school setting, and they have been doing so since 1975. Amazing! However, we learn in this piece that in fact the model(s) called by that name and used in the district’s high schools for decades were never accredited by the American Montessori Society, despite being touted as providing “top-notch” Montessori education. Say what? District officials provide “theories” as to why that didn’t happen, most of which point fingers at state requirements for “frequent testing”. Charming. I don’t know what, then, students were experiencing before, but we also learn that the district’s two Montessori high schools did in fact get accredited as proper purveyors of the model five years ago…after the elected school board approved a new Montessori curriculum. It took them a mere forty years to get there. Additionally, we hear that the Montessori elementary and middle schools in the district are “on the way” to similar accreditation, after a curriculum tweak, but it could still take two more years. There’s a lot to unpack here, but my main takeaway in light of our topic of the day is: What parent wouldn’t want their school district to operate at such a glacial pace for something they really believed in? (Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/7/23) And, never to be outdone without a fight, Youngstown City Schools could be looking at a teachers strike coinciding with the scheduled first day of school this year. Yep. It sure is a mystery why school choice is surging in Ohio. A real head scratcher. (WFMJ-TV, Youngstown, 8/8/23)
- Finally today, returning to our theme of “choice good” (as if we ever really left it): Toledo School for the Arts’ big $10 million glow up is now complete. The “most successful” charter school in Ohio (I’ll go along with it, even if City Paper does seem to bestow this title itself, sans criteria) now has even more studios, labs, and course offerings, and has capacity to enroll nearly ten times more students than it did when it first opened. Great news all around. You know, given all the other news. (Toledo City Paper, 8/8/23)
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