According to Buckeye State Blog, allowing parents to take their children (and tax dollars) and go to private, charter, religious, or suburban schools is the equivalent of busing them. Bill Todd advocates those options in a new radio ad (mp3). It’s a bit slimy to use the busing term, since that issue concerned mandatory busing, and what Todd (and others) are for is parental choice- precisely the opposite. By and large, Democrats oppose giving parents that choice, because the party puts teachers ahead of poor children. I know that sounds like over the top hyperbole but at the bottom line it has to be true. But there are also elements of limiting choice and maintaining the collective and dependence on the state.

It’s also fairly ridiculous that modernesquire tweaks Bill Todd for mentioning that Mayor Mike Coleman’s kids go to Catholic school, and then he questions whether Todd’s kids went to Columbus schools. But modern, only one of these two people wants to force poor kids to go to public schools.

Also at Right Angle Blog.

(Previous post: Charter school enrollment rising.)

Jerid Kurtz of Buckeye State Blog has banned regular contributor Paul Ackerman of Linwood Campaign Services. There’s a big argument going on in the comments to this post at BSB. Paul’s bio was removed from BSB’s About page.

Dave Hickman’s been posting comments about it on this post of mine. Quite gleefully, I might add. It’s hard to know from the outside what’s really going on there, but it doesn’t look pretty. Maybe they should read up on how poisonous the Ohio blogosphere is and… think of the children. Or something.

So reports the Dispatch:

One day after the death of U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor, a number of high-profile Republicans emerged as possible candidates for his Ohio seat, including his wife, Karen, state Rep. Robert E. Latta of Bowling Green and state Sen. Stephen Buehrer of Delta.

That’s happened before, notably with Sonny Bono’s House seat and with Mel Carnahan, who as a dead person defeated eventual US A.G. John Ashcroft for a US Senate seat for Missouri- of course everyone knew that Jean Carnahan would be taking over.

I don’t like this. Politics is becoming increasingly hereditary, unfortunately. Bush, Kennedy, and Gore all have their dynasties- and now the Clintons are attempting to establish a family brand. It’s rather undemocratic- but many of us are voting for them.

UPDATE: This blog is reporting that Karen Gillmor won’t be running (via Jeff Coryell).

The Dispatch blog reports:

Enrollment in Ohio’s eight largest urban school districts is slumping as more students head to charter schools.

A KidsOhio.org report illustrates the trend. In Dayton, 27 percent of public school students attend privately operated, tax-funded, tuition-free schools, up from 20 percent in 2003.

In Columbus, 13 percent of students attend charter schools; four years ago it was 4 percent.

The biggest increases are in Cleveland and Toledo where 18 percent of public school students in each district attend charter schools. Both were at 7 percent in 2003.

These numbers are increasing in Ohio even as many charter schools have poor to failing scores- on average, worse than public schools. But the averages don’t necessarily mean anything to individual parents. If your children are eligible for a decent or even just fair charter school while they’re zoned for a pretty bad public school, the statewide averages for public and charter schools aren’t really a concern. Your choice is only between two specific schools. And you should have that choice (and more).

(Previous post: Ohio needs credible alternative for public schools.)

The latest Quinnipiac poll of Ohioans has been released:

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner has opened a 47 - 40 percent lead over her GOP counterpart, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, up from a 43 - 43 percent tie in an August 8 poll….

Giuliani and Clinton both lead in their respective parties.

Also, Dems beat Repubs in all polled matchups except McCain vs. Obama.

(Via The Daily Briefing. Previous post: Rasmussen: Guiliani edges Clinton by 1 pt in Ohio.)

Jill Miller Zimon has a post up on an arrest in California of the founder of a charter school network. Apparently, the schools themselves weren’t for-profit, but the schools used the services of a for-profit company, owned by the same person. Clearly a conflict of interest. Jill writes about how this might affect Ohio:

Mary Taylor’s been publishing audits that indicate a problems with the charters. But she’s also been the benefactor of their profits. How will she interpret what’s going in California, for herself and her responsibilities?

Let’s not forget another readon why I dislike the profit aspect: because so many of the profits go to politicians.

By that logic, we should never have any Democrats doing anything about the public schools. Why should anyone trust Democrats to regulate public schools when they receive so much from teachers’ unions? In the public school system, we’ve got politicians giving raises to teachers, who give some of it to their unions, who contribute some of it to politicians in an attempt to get more money for teachers and to protect the monopoly teachers’ unions want on public funds, thus guaranteeing a more or less permanent revenue stream to Democrats.

The solution for Ohio is broad reporting requirements for spending and education results for all schools, public, charter, and for-profit. The legislature has to be smart enough to properly regulate all schools that receive public money. Then let parents decide where to send their children and where to spend the money earmarked for those children. Public schools fail and waste money too. There needs to be a credible alternative.

Political blogs are not subject to FEC regulations, unless they’re paid for by candidates. So, there is a First Amendment. I’m not impressed that the FEC is ruling on these matters at all. I mean they could just as easily rule the other way.

From CNN:

Ohio Rep. Paul Gillmor was found dead in his apartment Wednesday, a Republican leadership aide said.

The aide said the body of the 68-year-old Republican was found by staff members who went to his apartment after he failed to show up for work. There was no immediate word on the cause of his death. Gillmor’s office did not respond to a reporter’s call.

Gillmor, who represented Ohio’s 5th District in the Bowling Green area of the state, was first elected to Congress in 1988.

He was 68. I saw this first at Right Angle Blog.

The Buckeye Institute Blog has a poor review for Gov. Strickland’s energy plan. Yes, it’s shocking, I know. Here’s their bottom line:

His plan gives the PUCO bureaucrats and their politican overseers a new lease on life in managing electric utility service in Ohio. The governor’s proposal provides them the chance to once again set prices, allocate resources, ration service and mandate redistributions between classes in tune with political power instead of contribution to economic prosperity.

There will be plenty of security and predictability for ratepayers in the increased regulation of electric utilities. And dodging the bullet of unregulated monopolies created as a legacy of regulation is important as well.

But a reading of economics and recent history reveals that the comfort of a beefed-up regulatory regime will come at the cost of forgoing the greater prosperity inherent in free market economies.

The theme for Democrats seems to be that the more important something is, and this applies to energy, education, agriculture, and others, the less you want the influence of free markets. This to avoid the problems that accompany free markets, but they too often end up getting rid of the benefits as well.

UPDATE: Dave Harding at Progress Ohio has a good overview of the plan.

Under Strickland’s plan, by 2025, a minimum of 25 percent of the electricity sold in Ohio must be generated from advanced energy technology. No less than half of that energy will come from renewable sources, including biomass, wind, solar, biogas, geothermal, and hydro power. However, the Governor has stated he will include “clean coal” and nuclear projects in the proposed energy portfolio.

I guess that means that 12.5% must be “renewable”. I had a post up earlier about a proposed 20% plan. But biomass is no environmental bargain, and that may well become widely known before 2025, and I don’t see any new hydro facilities being built- too environmentally controversial.

CNN is reporting that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig will likely resign soon. More on that at Nixguy and from Ryan at Buckeye State Blog, who’s got a well-considered post:

I find it quite sad that this man, because of societal pressure feels unable to come out of the closet and admit to himself that he is gay. It is a sad state of affairs when people feel this boxed in because of what they do or who they are that they have to resort to the kinds of activity that Senator Craig engaged in.

I think that’s the only reasonable take on the situation. Think Brokeback Mountain. And it’s very different from the Jeridian glee on the matter.

In somewhat related news, the Columbus Police and park people are working on cutting down lewd behavior in the city’s parks:

The Columbus police vice squad said that secluded areas attract the wrong sort of crowd, like the woods that line the parking lot of Rhodes Park.

Officers are working closely with the city to get thick brush cleared in problem areas.

In addition, the city’s recreation and parks department has begun putting new facilities in the parks that promote positive activities and increase traffic.

I’m glad they’re promoting positive activities, whatever they are. 100 people have been arrested so far this year.

Mayor Mike Coleman adviser Ahmad Al-Akhras has invited Islamist speaker (and alleged 1993 WTC bombing unindicted co-conspirator) Siraj Wahhaj to speak at the “Annual Fundraising Dinner” for the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio in Columbus on September 9th.

Wahhaj has called for the imposition of Sharia law in the United States. Sharia’s treatment of women, gays, and religious inferiors makes CPD Officer Susan Purtee’s views seem tame in comparison.

Al-Akhras sits on the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and Columbus’s Streetcar Working Group (pdf), and is the National Vice Chairman of the front group CAIR.