Charter schools are not a solution
Most people would agree that every child should have the opportunity at a high quality education. Unfortunately Republicans have become obsessed with making changes that don’t actually improve educational outcomes.
The most recent examples of this obsession are a few bills (HB 6004, HB 5923, and SB 1358) being offered by Michigan Republicans. These bills would establish a statewide school district that would be accountable to a board composed of members appointed by the governor, not elected by the people. For a group that is so opposed to government control and regulations this seems like an odd step to take. Decision making regarding local schools would be taken away from communities and passed along to bureaucrats.
These bills would also allow nearly any for-profit entity to establish a charter school. These charter schools could then siphon off money and good students from public schools, leaving the neediest children for the public schools. The bill only requires these corporate sponsored schools to accept 25% of their students from families outside of the corporate envelope, making this law more of a corporate giveaway than a way for less-privileged students to get ahead.
Of course the real issue here is that charter schools don’t outperform public schools. Regardless of the anecdotal evidence that is often