The State Board of Education approved a resolution calling on lawmakers to pass legislation to increase transparency around Michigan's charter school finances, stating that charter schools are “democratically governed, community-based schools. “A threat to the school.”
The resolution, introduced Tuesday by board member Dr. Mitchell Robinson, calls for implementing a number of reforms, including the eventual phase-out of for-profit charter management organizations.
“The original concept of charter schools as laboratories for innovation came from teachers unions, but that purpose has now been largely lost to predatory for-profit charter management organizations,” Robinson said. Associate Professor of Music Education, Michigan State University. “I have spent over the past decade studying the effects of free proliferation of charter schools in Michigan. I see no evidence of innovation in the charter sector. We believe the time has come for strict oversight and accountability measures.”
charter school, also known as public school academies, are publicly funded and operated under a charter contract issued by a publicly chartered entity such as a university, community college, or local public school district. One difference from traditional public schools is that charter school board members are appointed by the charterer, rather than by the charterer. chosen by local voters.
According to the news releaseThe resolution is the result of growing concerns by state education commissioners about the state's efforts to privatize public education and give private and appointed school boards, religious organizations, and for-profit corporations a voice in public education. It is.
The resolution also notes that there are 285 charter school districts in Michigan, responsible for 363 charter schools.
“We are currently struggling to adequately fund and support one system of public schools, while also funding additional publicly funded school systems. are significantly different from traditional public schools in that they pay teachers 30% less and administrators 30% more,” and are subject to many of the same rules and regulations as traditional public schools. Exempted. This is a fiscally irresponsible and educationally unsound approach,” Robinson said.
This resolution calls for the enactment of legislation that includes provisions requiring:
- The Michigan Department of Education reviews whether to approve or deny new, duplication, or expansion charter school applications after consulting with the local school district in which the charter school operates.
- Converting for-profit charter management organizations in the state to nonprofit charter management organizations.
- Full and complete transparency of all financial matters related to the Charter Management Company's income and expenditures.
- Compliance with open meetings laws and freedom of information laws.
- Publish detailed management contracts and detailed education management organization expenditures by function on the charter school website.
- Compliance with all bidding laws and regulations.
- It is prohibited to exclude students from attending a charter school, prevent them from enrolling in a charter school, or encourage them to leave the school based on their behavior, academic ability, disability, English proficiency, family situation, living situation, etc. do.
- Prohibits charter schools from rejecting transfer students during the school year if the charter school has space available.
- All charter school faculty and administrative staff will increasingly obtain certification in lieu of temporary permits, and employees working while holding temporary or emergency permits will become fully eligible. We strongly encourage you to do so.
The resolution passed 6-1, with Robinson joined by fellow Democrats Marshall Bulloch II, Ellen Lipton, Judith Pritchett, Tiffany Tilley, and Board Chair Dr. Pamela Pugh. Ta.
Republican Tom McMillan was the only vote against the resolution. Nicki Snyder, the only Republican on the board, was absent after his resignation. I left the meeting in the middle of the meeting. when the board refused to add some of her school safety proposals to the agenda.
“I'm disgusted by the vileness of this board,” Snyder said as he picked up his bag and left the board room.
However, Macmillan He said he believes charter school resolutions are not focused on what is best for students.
“I know there are a lot of people who want to protect the adults in the system. That's their number one priority, not the kids,” he said. And these charter schools give parents options. There's a reason they're at capacity because parents want their kids to get a decent education. ”
But the quality of education in Michigan's charter schools is by no means a settled issue.
2023 survey According to Stanford University's Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO), Michigan ranked among the top 10 states for charter school performance from 2014 to 2019, with students completing 36 days of English and 24 days of math. I received additional learning. their counterparts in traditional public schools.
But as a chalk beat reportthe “learning days” metric used in that study. “However, this is controversial among researchers and difficult to interpret.” 2019 commentary The Rand Corporation specifically criticized the methodology used by CREDO.
State Schools Superintendent Michael Rice addressed that very issue in his remarks Tuesday.
“Do charter schools provide better academic opportunities?” he asked. “Studies on charter schools don't reflect that. Some studies say they've improved slightly. Others say otherwise. Some argue that some of these studies have methodological flaws. There are people, and I am one of them.”
on the other hand, Report card issued last year ranked students' reading and math performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) from 2009 to 2019. This was the first time charter school performance across the state was evaluated based on a single set of nationally administered standardized tests.
Michigan charter schools performed poorly overall, ranking 31.1% below the national average and third worst in the nation.
When asked to comment on this resolution, Requests to the Michigan Public School Academy Association (MAPSA), which advocates on behalf of the state's charter schools, were not returned.
but, “We've seen a lot of changes,” said Dr. Molly Macek, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative free-market think tank. expressed his determination It wasn't about transparency, it was about taking educational choice away from parents.
“Giving local public schools a say in whether or not to allow charter schools to open is like giving Kroger the power to decide whether Meijer can open nearby,” she says. “Of course they're always going to object. That's not good for students or families.”
Meanwhile, Pugh said it is imperative to have all the facts, including financial data, to offer parents educational options.
“Our public schools are an important part of our communities,” she said. “Government should be ruled by the people, not by outside groups that don't support open government. Michigan spends more than $1 billion a year on charter schools. Equally important, community members must be able to fully participate in important discussions and decisions that affect public schools, including charter schools. It’s what you do.”
This is not the first resolution the State Board of Education has called for greater transparency for charter schools. December 2022the board approved a resolution calling for legislative action to require financial transparency for charter schools, based on findings from a Freedom of Information Act request. in June 2021 A cross-section of charter schools and educational management organizations.
The stated purpose of the request was to determine “the extent to which charter schools and their educational management organizations maintain the same standards of transparency as traditional public school districts.”
Of those requests, The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) discovered Twelve of the 166 charter schools did not respond, while all 112 traditional public school districts did. Additionally, MDE requires audited financial data because most charter school financial data primarily consists of purchased services and charter management companies are not subject to the same financial reporting and auditing requirements as traditional public school districts. He stated that it could not be verified from the documents.
