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.)

Will this be the last batch of names and SSNs announced to have been on the stolen data tape? From channel 10:

The names and Social Security numbers of 66,000 additional Ohioans were listed on a computer backup tape that was stolen in June, according to a report that was released Monday.

Of the 66,000 names, nearly 50,000 are Ohio taxpayers and another 19,000 were state employees, 10TV’s Cara Connelly reported….

The state now estimates the theft and its response to it will cost about $3.1 million.

Also, the deadline to apply for the credit reporting has been extended to October 31. You can search to see if your info is among the stolen here.

(Previous post: Stolen data tape fallout.)

Here’s a look at the “new” electronic parking meters at columbusING. Jon notes that the device appears to be “rescued from a 70’s interpretation of the future.” It does look a little Star Trek- The Motion Pictureish. I had a post on them a while back.

Brendan at spacetropic has a post up about a Cinci Enquirer article about a transportation study put out by a 501(c)3 a year ago. Cincinnatians spend on average 20% of their income on transportation, which puts them at #6. Cleveland is #2 at 20.5%. I looked at the study (pdf) which lists the top 28 cities by that measure and Columbus isn’t on it. Houston is #1, which should come as no surprise to people familiar with that city.

To possibly make it easier to find your way around on public transportation, Google is starting to index transit maps and schedules to allow mass transit directions at the Google Labs Transit project. No Columbus info yet and it looks like it’ll be a while. Here’s a sample map for Portland:

View Larger Map

COTA does have a trip planner, but it’s not as cool or as fast as Google’s. It needs more ajaxiness.

Walker and Eric have a new blog focusing on Columbus transportation at X-ing Columbus.

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.

From Lisa Cornwell for the AP in the Dispatch:

A woman whose 2-year-old daughter died in an overheated car last month had left the girl unattended in the vehicle twice in the two days before the death and had earlier been warned about the danger that created, according to a police report….

The police report in the death of the 2-year-old girl showed that employees at the Compass School in Loveland said she had been left unattended in a vehicle on at least three other occasions.

Teacher Tara Phillips told police that on Aug. 21, Nesselroad-Slaby came to pick up the 5-year-old at the school and told the child to hurry up because the baby was in the car. The next day, Nesselroad-Slaby came in again to pick up the older child and stayed for about 10 minutes to watch the class act out a story, the report says.

The death occurred the next day, Aug 23rd. Clermont County Prosecutor Don White has already decided not to charge the mother, Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby. In light of this additional info, which White must have had, that seems hard to understand. It doesn’t look like a tragic one-time bout of forgetfulness. It looks like a pattern or recklessness.

Bill Sloat talks about a contrasting case here.

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).

From NBC4i, Teresa Smoak, a Columbus public school teacher, has died of bacterial meningitis.

The health department is working with the school district to locate any of the people at risk to make sure they receive treatment. Officials said that antibiotics have been provided to students and faculty who were in close contact with Smoak.

Anyone who believes they know someone who has contracted the disease is asked to call their physician or Columbus Public Health at 614-645-1474.

The infection is spread by contact, but not casual contact. Here’s some info on bacterial meningitis, from this site:

* Bacterial meningitis is a serious infection of the fluid in the spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain.
* Bacterial meningitis is most commonly caused by one of three types of bacteria: Haemophilus influenzae type b, Neisseria meningitidis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria.
* The bacteria are spread by direct close contact with the discharges from the nose or throat of an infected person.
* Bacterial meningitis can be treated with antibiotics.
* Prevention depends on use of vaccines, rapid diagnosis, and prompt treatment of close personal contacts.

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.)