Long- time city school champs are still giving

Lawmakers and think-tankers may be as far as they ever have been from solving the many problems that plague American public schools, but that discouraging notion is offset every day by the small victories enabled by education champions like Columbus’ Weiler family.

We say “small” because the Teachers’ Dream Grant program, funded entirely by former Columbus Board of Education member Bob Weiler and his wife, Missy, involves grants as small as $500 and no larger than $5,000. They allow teachers with innovative, creative ideas for learning projects to bring them to life.

But the impact on a child whose curiosity and love of learning is switched on by a teacher’s “dream” project can be immense.

Sixth-graders in Sam Leopold’s class at Columbus Gifted Academy have spent the year learning in the context of world events — debating issues such as the #MeToo movement and school shootings, informed by readings from books, newspapers and magazines.

Leopold had the idea in a light-bulb moment last summer; all he needed to make it happen was the money to buy the readings.

The Weilers’ grants have been bringing teachers’ inspirations to life since 2006 — more than $600,000 worth so far.

The generosity is typical of the support Bob and Missy Weiler have offered Columbus schools for decades. As a schoolboard member from 1986 through 1991, Mr. Weiler was a steady presence on a sometimes-volatile board, interested only in providing a better education.

He helped other community leaders create I Know I Can, a volunteer program that has helped thousands of Columbus graduates make it to college. Like that program, the Teachers’ Dream Grant has a positive impact that can’t be measured.

Rogue bamboo surely is not the most urgent issue facing city leaders, but if you’re a victim of it with no recourse, it’s an outrage.

So Columbus City Council should find time to come up with an ordinance defining the problem and requiring thoughtless property owners who let it happen to fix it.

To get an idea of the problem, they need only go to Juanita Furuta’s German Village home, which is dwarfed by a thicket of 40-foot bamboo stalks growing in the yard next door.

Living in an unwelcome bamboo shade, however annoying, probably isn’t actionable. The problem is much worse. Bamboo doesn’t just stay put; given the right (wrong) species, it’s one of the fastest-growing and most-aggressive plants on earth, a gargantuan grass with rhizomes, or roots, that shoot laterally underground and come up in neighbors’ yards.

Cutting it does no good; it comes back. Furuta is worried it will damage the foundation of her house.

With no rules in the city code, Furuta would have to go to court to try to force her neighbor to do something about the bamboo. The city of Worthington faced a similar situation in 2015, with multiple residents complaining of invasive bamboo. That city passed an ordinance requiring owners of bamboo to prevent it from encroaching on any other properties or pay for removal.

Worthington has invoked the ordinance only twice since then. It’s not a high-volume problem. But Columbus should provide similar protection to anyone unfortunate enough to live next to the destructive galloping grass. Enjoy cartoons by Nate Beeler at Dispatch.com/opinion/beeler