How Does Dublin City Schools Solve a Problem Like Scioto High School?

The uproar over redistricting is a sign of a deeper problem. Let’s figure out what the problem is and fix it. We owe it to our kids, don’t we?

Lots of people have asked for my thoughts on what can be done to stop the Bailey Elementary School (BES) neighborhoods from being pushed over to Scioto. Here is the simple answer: put as much pressure on Amy Messick as possible, as she is THE decider. Lindsay Gillis and Tiffany DeSilva live in the Scioto area. They most certainly lose nothing by putting their DEI politics ahead of common sense via pushing Map 3 and could economically benefit. Chris Valentine, who lives in the BES neighborhoods, and Diana Rigby, who is safe in the Jerome area, will stick with common sense via pushing Map 1. That leaves Messick who lives in the BES neighborhoods next to lots of neighbors who she will have to face day in, day out as their kids trudge to Scioto should she put her left-wing DEI politics ahead of common sense. Messick needs to decide does she want to placate her progressive left friends OR be a good neighbor and common sense board member. Thus, if you want to do something, then send her emails and snail mail (5175 Emerald Parkway, Dublin, Ohio 43017) by the hundreds to put as much pressure on her to push Map 1 as possible (please refrain from bombarding her home, as that would likely only antagonize her). You can rest assure that the DEI-card throwing neighborhoods south of Rings Road are hitting her to push Map 3. It is crazy that DEI politics is driving this issue, but it is.

We’ve reached what I would refer to as “gut check” moment with Messick. She will be up for reelection in 2027. Let her know if she decides to put her personal politics ahead of common sense, you not only will vote for her opponent in 2027, but you will put your money where your mouth is and contribute both to her opponent and a “Defeat Amy Messick” fund. To that end, I personally will contribute $2,500 to a “Defeat Amy Messick” fund should she not support Map 1. I hope you will join me by making a pledge today by emailing me an amount you would be willing to contribute should this come to pass in 2027 (I will not use your email for any other purpose nor sell it). If we get a meaningful number of pledges, I will publish the amount so Messick knows what she is facing in two years should she fail to support Map 1. Hopefully, it won’t be needed, but, in politics, money matters.

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Dublin City Schools (DCS) wants to pretend that all three Dublin high schools are of the same caliber educationally. We know from the DEI/race card being thrown down by the neighborhoods south of Rings Road, which elicited the filing of a real estate complaint against Gillis and the filing of Civil Rights Complaints with the state and federal government by BES neighborhoods, that DCS’s view is just wrong. My last column analyzing the three maps became my most read column out of 374 columns since I launched my Substack column, The Patriot Mind. It hit that mark in less the 48-hours. As they say, all politics really is local (and don’t get Soccer Moms mad).

As a free market guy, I always watch how the market responds to choices. Based on the massive opposition EVERY neighborhood in Dublin has shown to possibly being redistricted to Scioto, it seems clear the market disagrees vehemently with DCS. The rankings support their opposition. Specifically, according to U.S. News & World Report, within the Greater Columbus Area, among suburban high schools, Scioto is ranked worse than all high schools except Hilliard Darby and Grove City. That means EVERY Olentangy (four schools), Westerville (three), and Pickerington (three) high school fairs better than Scioto, as well as the smaller school districts like Bexley (one), New Albany (one), Upper Arlington (one), Worthington (two), and Grandview (one) (hat tip to Amy for these numbers). Being 16th out of eighteen suburban high schools is plain ugly. Thus, one must wonder: why is Scioto doing so poorly and how can we as a community fix it? Many of the schools doing better than Scioto have similar or more challenging demographic figures.

Before my friends on the Left respond with “More money!!!,” there is no evidence higher per pupil spending results in better educational outcomes. If that were the case, #1 spender New York City schools would garner the best results with their $28,828 per pupil spending average. They don’t. According the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress scores, among fourth graders, only 37% of NYC students are proficient in math and 31% of students are proficient in reading. After four more years in the NYC system, eighth grader proficiency drops down to 26% in math and remains at 31% in reading.

And, the answer also IS NOT propping up the numbers by moving low performing kids from Scioto to Coffman and moving high performing kids from Coffman to Scioto. That “solution” merely masks the systemic issue of underperformance by the kids currently and historically at Scioto. That approach likely also unfairly hurts the academic outcomes for the high performing Coffman kids who have been moved, as their transcripts for colleges will be deemed weaker than had they come from Coffman. Moreover, by spreading low performing kids across the district, DCS likely would increase costs for Dublin taxpayers, as services for those kids would have to be added at Coffman versus concentrated at Scioto. Robbing Peter to pay Paul has never worked.

So, beyond more money and masking over the issues, what can DCS do to make Scioto more competitive within Dublin and across the Greater Columbus Area? For far too long, DCS has ignored Scioto’s outcomes. That must stop.

Now, full disclosure: I’m not an education expert. I am, however, a public policy expert on lots of topics having spent the better part of my career analyzing data, reading extensively, developing solutions to public policy issues, and writing several policy books. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my career is that if I don’t know something in a policy area, I should get help from someone who does know something in that area. For example, when I was the Deputy Director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, we would routinely bring together experts from all sides of an issue to get feedback and advice on how Colorado should tackle a particular problem. Similarly, when I was the Executive Director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination & Preparedness (the office that funded terrorism preparedness across the country after 9/11) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, I would bring together national security experts from think tanks on the Left and Right to get their feedback on what we were doing right and wrong and how we could fix what wasn’t working.

When it comes to education issues, I do know a few experts. Dublin has an education expert whose job it is for the State of Ohio to help poorly performing schools do better. I used to work with Lindsey Burke at The Heritage Foundation who is among America’s top education experts. My old boss in Colorado also knows a ton about education issues given his work in Colorado and Texas. Heck, even my younger sister, Tina, has ideas about how to improve student performance based on nearly three decades of teaching, including teaching many kids who entered her classroom performing poorly and left meeting standards. My point is there are people out there who can help. DCS should form a committee of outside experts—not high paid consultants—to spend a year digging into the issues at Scioto and making recommendations on how to improve it.

Next, DCS needs to look at the teachers currently at Scioto to make sure every one of them is doing the most they can to get good results. I’m not blaming the teachers. I’m merely stating that there are effective teachers and ineffective teachers, as is the case in every profession and industry. Perhaps there are teachers at Jerome and Coffman who could get better results at Scioto without a drop in outcomes at Jerome and Coffman. Teacher reassignments should be on the table.

Lastly, we must look to see what happens with the Scioto kids OUTSIDE of the classroom. When I explored a run for Ohio Governor in 2023, I referred to this as the “4pm-to-8am Problem;” meaning, we can have the best teachers with the most resources doing amazing things inside the classroom from 8am-to-4pm, but if their kids go home to dysfunctional environments, than whatever gains are being made inside the classroom will be lost outside the classroom. These issues include:

• Too much screen time;

• Too little nutritional food;

• Too little sleep; and

• Too little structure.

The point here is we cannot expect much from a kid who spends lots of time on screens, doesn’t eat the right foods so struggles to pay attention or whose brain doesn’t fire optimally, doesn’t get enough sleep so can’t focus or stay awake, and spends non-school time in a chaotic home. The research on these issues is pretty solid, so ignoring it makes no sense. You can be offended that I’ve raised this issue, but SOMETHING has to explain why Scioto students collectively perform worse than Jerome and Coffman students AND NEARLY EVERY OTHER SUBURBAN HIGH SCHOOL IN THE GREATER COLUMBUS AREA. I just want to find out what it is, so we can help those kids reach the same potential as the Jerome and Coffman kids. What makes no sense is to ignore this potential issue because it doesn’t involve school hours.

At the end of the day, I don’t have all of the answers, but imagine if DCS would have done just the three actions above a decade ago before overcrowding became such a pressing issue. Perhaps Scioto would have started performing as well as Coffman, thereby eliminating the reason why Coffman neighborhoods are fighting so fiercely now to prevent being pushed over to Scioto. The uproar over redistricting is a sign of a deeper problem. Let’s figure out what the problem is and fix it. We owe it to our kids, don’t we?