Cheese, Vouchers, and HBO

Top of Mind

Cheese Freeze on I-71

If you found yourself stuck near Kenwood on I-71 this week, no, it wasn’t a dream; you really were delayed by 40,000 pounds of cheese.

Late Wednesday night, a semi-truck hauling a full load of cheese tipped over near the Montgomery Road exit, triggering an hours-long shutdown of the southbound lanes. Despite no injuries, no dairy on the pavement, and only a minor fuel leak, the cleanup required multiple tow trucks and on-site offloading of the cheese into dumpsters. Because nothing says "late-night logistics" like manually emptying a semi full of gouda.

The right lane finally reopened after nearly 12 hours, while the left two lanes remain closed as of Thursday afternoon. No word yet on what caused the crash, or where all that cheese is headed now, but it’s safe to say this will go down as one of the great dairy debacles of Ohio highway history.

Ohio Confidential (And Publicly Embarrassing)

In case you missed it between the power outages, cheese truck crashes, and rivers casually overtaking half of Columbus, HBO just dropped a new documentary, and Ohio is once again center stage for all the wrong reasons.

The Dark Money Game, a two-part series from Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (you know, the guy behind Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), turns its lens on one of the most staggering political scandals in recent memory: the $60 million bribery scheme that sent former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to federal prison.

The first episode, Ohio Confidential, zeroes in on the pay-to-play disaster involving Akron-based utility giant FirstEnergy, a rigged $1 billion nuclear bailout, and a whole lot of untraceable cash funneled through 501(c)(4) “nonprofits.” (Fun fact: they’re called dark money groups not because they sound cool, but because legally, they don’t have to tell us who’s funding them.)

funneled through 501(c)(4) “nonprofits.” (Fun fact: they’re called dark money groups not because they sound cool, but because legally, they don’t have to tell us who’s funding them.)

It’s narrated in part by the late superlobbyist Neil Clark, via FBI recordings and posthumous memoir excerpts,  who openly admitted that after Citizens United, corruption basically became a tax write-off. Clark’s own story is a tragedy, but it’s also a window into how normalized this level of corruption became. Picture The Godfather meets C-SPAN, if everyone forgot to wear pants.

Episode two, Wealth of the Wicked, zooms out to show how the moneyed elite, religious fundamentalists, and corporate interests joined forces Voltron-style to shape policy from the statehouse to the Supreme Court. Spoiler alert: they weren’t doing it for fun. They were doing it to win, and they’re still winning.

The kicker? Householder got re-elected after he was indicted. Gibney blames it on a potent cocktail of gerrymandering, identity politics, and a public so desensitized to political scandal that bribery now barely registers above “mildly unethical.”

And let’s not pretend this is a historical artifact. The same networks of dark money, unchecked influence, and campaign finance loopholes are still shaping Ohio’s policies today, from energy to education to redistricting. The only thing that’s changed is now you can now stream it.

So yes,  Ohio made HBO. Not for our cuisine, culture, or Midwestern charm, but for pioneering a corruption scandal so massive it got a two-hour feature and an Emmy-likely production crew. At this point, our political legacy is a cross between a civics lesson and a true crime podcast.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s this: the film ends not in despair, but in challenge. Gibney leaves us with one message: “Take it back.”

And if nothing else, maybe that’s where we start. With the radical idea that public money should serve the public, not just the highest bidder.

Streaming now on HBO Max.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Where and when was the first instance of corruption?

A) Egypt, 3100 B.C.
B) Ohio, 1899
C) Cincinati, 1492
D) Greece, 1 A.D.

The Voucher Boom: Ohio’s Billion-Dollar School Swap

“Choice” or Cutbacks?

Supporters say vouchers let parents pick the best school for their child. But critics argue it’s public funds being siphoned into private hands, with little oversight and big consequences. Some of those consequences are showing up in places like Akron Public Schools, which is taking a $28 million hit from vouchers, most going to students who never stepped foot in the district.

Now the state is planning an additional $100 million in cuts to public schools over the next two years.

“You’re dismantling public education one voucher at a time,” said one superintendent. And he's not the only one worried.

Accountability? Optional.

Unlike public schools, private schools receiving voucher dollars don’t face the same audits or standardized testing requirements. A proposed law that would have created a performance scorecard for these schools failed in the legislature. As it stands, there’s no way to compare outcomes between voucher schools and public schools, even as the state doubles down on private funding.

Some lawmakers want to fix that. Rep. Phil Robinson is pushing for a tiered system based on income and new transparency rules. But with Republicans holding the majority, and the governor on board with expansion, the changes face steep odds.

What’s Next?

Lawmakers are now considering educational savings accounts, public money parents could use for anything from homeschool materials to private tutors. It’s a move toward the Arizona-style “every-kid-gets-a-check” model.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit from more than 300 public school districts is making its way through Franklin County courts, arguing the entire system is unconstitutional. Until then, Ohio continues to fund two parallel education systems—one with oversight and obligation, the other with options and opacity.

Because when it comes to school choice in Ohio, the only thing more flexible than the rules is the checkbook.

Trivia Answer:

A) Egypt! but the largest in Ohio’s history is this first energy scandal.