Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Oct. 9, 2026

Every morning in the Ohio Capital Journal’s free newsletter, The Eye-Opener, we round up the news and commentary from across Ohio and around the country and world that is catching our attention. We call this feature Catching Our Eye, republished here.

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Catching Our Eye

• Assault on Ohio public schools. The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram’s Owen MacMillan reports, “’We are under assault,’ Advocates say Ohio school funding being actively undercut.”

As districts across the county pursue funding levies next month, and those across the state face mounting financial pressures, a group of parents, educators and advocates gathered to discuss the state of school funding in Ohio and its future.

A panel of policy experts, educators and parents argued at the event that Ohio’s school funding shortfall was not the result of overpaid administrators or local fiscal irresponsibility, but of an active choice by the state legislature to underfund public schools.

• Get the Flock out? WOSU’s Katie Geniusz reports, “Meet the central Ohio residents who want to ‘DeFlock’ their neighborhoods.”

On June 13, the DeFlock chapter of Upper Arlington held its first meeting. It would be the first DeFlock group in central Ohio. Six people showed up, including the group’s two founders, Paul Shannon and Christian Gabis. The organization aims to have Flock cameras removed from the community.

Now, Shannon and Gabis believe the group may have outgrown the 75-seat Friend’s Theater at the Tremont Branch of Upper Arlington Public Library.

• Ohio swing counties. Ideastream’s Matthew Richmond reports, “Ohio’s statewide races could depend on a few counties, Brown’s return to the ballot and Trump.”

This year’s election is similar to 2018 — it’s a midterm election, halfway through President Donald Trump’s term and the president’s approval ratings are low.

And Sherrod Brown’s presence on the ballot may serve to drive up support for other Democrats, like gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, said David Cohen, director of the Applied Politics Program at University of Akron…

The election may come down to who shows up to the polls in a few counties, said Cohen, including Ottawa, Trumbull and Mahoning Counties.

• Vance’s laughable definition of ‘socialism.’ Cleveland.com’s Howard Koplowitz reports, “‘Our VP really is an idiot’: Vance hammered for ‘laughably dishonest’ definition of socialism.”

“So, I don’t know what the term means anymore. I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers, and you want boys to play in girls’ sports,” the vice president continued. “That’s what united the socialists that I see running across the United States of America today.”

Trump administration critics and political observers both mocked Vance and accused the vice president of being fully aware of the proper definition of socialism.

The primary definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is “any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”

Vance’s definition “is so laughably dishonest,” said Reason reporter Billy Binion. “The Trump administration would like to change the definition of socialism because it’s engaging in it and has bought stakes in dozens of private companies. JD Vance is practically a woke progressive at this point.”