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Ohio legislators must fix school busing woes

Though a state workgroup has recommended “comprehensive system change” for public school transportation, there is little agreement about what that change might look like, or how Ohio can accomplish the goal to “ease current system challenges and build the new system foundation.” According to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal, one major challenge is the shortage in people willing to be bus drivers. Among the other problems to be solved is transportation for students at private schools, religious schools, career centers and educational service centers. “Family school ...

AI can make life easier, but it certainly can’t build character

This summer, my son learned to tread water in the deep end, worked through awkward guitar chords and chased pickleballs that sailed just beyond his reach. Watching him fail, grapple with frustration, try again and improve made me realize something. Technology still can’t build character; you need lived experience for that. As artificial intelligence grows more capable of writing, researching, calculating and creating, the question parents should be asking is: What experiences still require my child to struggle, adapt and grow? It’s the learning spaces that matter. Sure, I have an ...

DeWine speaks up on behalf of immigrants

“The federal officials are now telling us that they do not have any plans, they’ve received no instructions, to have any kind of raids in Springfield,” Gov. Mike DeWine told Statehouse News Bureau last week. “Now, that can change, but they did tell us they’ve heard nothing.” Given how vocal DeWine has been about the federal government making a mistake with its planned end to temporary protected status for thousands of Haitians in the Buckeye State, it’s possible immigration officials just don’t want to tip their hand. Still, it’s possible they are listening to ...

Trump has never been funny

In a display of Stockholm Syndrome, the White House Correspondents’ Association invited Donald Trump to be the keynote speaker at its annual festival of self-appreciation. Because he is who he is, he did not take the opportunity to do the kind of gentle press ribbing that past presidents have engaged in, and he certainly declined to engage in the self-deprecating humor that charmed audiences in the old days. Instead, he delivered a string of puerile insults that would be beneath a fifth grader. The tuxedo and ball gown-clad lads and ladies were forced to sit through meandering ...

Ballooning federal debt is straining private economy in US

The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond has climbed back to where it stood in 2007, north of 5%, and it pushed a little higher again last week after the Federal Reserve left its own rates alone. On its face, that sounds almost reassuring, a return to some pre-crisis normal. It is nothing of the sort. The same number today carries a very different, and far heavier, meaning than it did 19 years ago. In 2007, the federal debt held by the public was roughly $9 trillion. Today it is about four times that. A yield is simply the price of borrowing, and paying the 2007 price on four times the ...

AI has potential to do harm

As an old-school news hound — meaning I can remember typewriters — I am familiar with the old newsroom saying, “If you don’t like the news, just wait a few minutes.” Lately, I find myself waiting more than a few minutes for another shoe to drop in a present-day saga widely referred to as the “Hugging Face” breach. Or perhaps you’ve heard it referred to as the “rogue” OpenAI agent, although I still have questions about just how rogue it was, since it seems to have been doing only what it was designed to do, like it or not. The story began July 21, when tech giant ...