BuckeyeBlog

Gongwer, a legislative news service ($) reports on an interview with the incoming Superintendent of Public Instruction, Deborah Delisle. Ms. Delisle, whose resume of school administrative leadership stretches from Mantua to Cleveland Heights, had this to say about two strategies freeing parents from the tyranny of failing assigned-by- and run-by-government schools (vouchers and charters):

“When you provide opportunities for people to escape what is viewed as a problem, without looking at what the source of that problem is and fixing the problem, you’re going to create a further divide among individuals across the population and you’re going to create a greater sense of haves and have-nots,” she said.

“You’ve given some kids an opportunity and you’ve allowed other kids to just wallow behind in a failing school,” she added. “It just is not as simplistic as, ‘Let’s send somebody somewhere else.’”

So what you’re saying Ms. Delisle, is every child assigned to a failing public school must suffer their fate of an inadequate education all in the name of equality of peoples’ senses of having or having-not?

According to your line of thinking, Ms Delisle, rather than boarding the lifeboats, Titanic survivors should have been forced to sit on deck and drown, happily hoping for the crew to repair the hole, since there weren’t enough lifeboats for everyone?

Leadership of Ohio’s schools is going to demand of you better thinking than this.

Here’s a good story with a nice transparency angle, holding to account recipients of "taxpayer money ."

It happens to be a charter school, and charter schools indeed should be held accountable. Of $2 million, $54,000 was undocumented. That doesn’t mean anything untoward, except that the records aren’t in accord with standards.

Lots of good stuff here, albeit of the eat-your-vegetables variety. What are the applicable standards; what is the total budget; the percentage or efficiency of inadequate documentation, the "cruel commas" effect of adjectives–lots and lots of good stuff to chew on. That, and the main theme of the story, let’s hold charter schools to account.

Just one thing. Can we count on our friends in the news industry to use that nice phrase "taxpayer money" in all situations of government spending, including public district schools, or only when it fits an agenda?