Does Lansing really want to improve public education, or do they have other motives?
Governor Snyder and our legislators are engaged in another round of reform measures for public education. While inspecting these set of bills closely, one would wonder if their interests are genuinely intent on improving public education or if there are other ulterior interests and motives involved. Let’s take a close look at some of this new legislation.
Lifting the cap on Charter Schools — While touting the need to have fewer school districts in Michigan to save on operational dollars, the Governor is promoting more charter schools. These additional “little school districts”, that do not need to comply with regulations and guidelines as K-12 public schools, will drain dollars from an already depleted School Aid Fund. I would encourage the Governor to read the performance research on charter schools (Charter Schools – Not a Silver Bullet of Education Reform). The research is clear that charter schools generally underperform their public school counterparts, have little transparency and accountability for expenditure of public tax dollars, are more racially segregated and regularly turn away special needs students.
Open Schools of Choice — The fundamental institution in our great American democracy is our