MEA Votes

While most in public education are working hard to stop a $218 per pupil funding cut from coming to pass, Michigan’s charter school advocates are rallying at the Capitol today to expand their ranks as part of ongoing school reform efforts – despite consistent research that shows increasing the number of charter schools will do nothing to help struggling schools or students.

Research doesn’t support rhetoric that charter schools provide students, especially in low-performing districts, an alternative that will lead to improved performance, or that charter school competition will lead to improvements in neighboring districts.

A study by Stanford University, for example, found that students in more than 80 percent of charter schools either performed the same as – or worse than – students in traditional schools on math tests. The same study found that African-American and Hispanic students were found to do worse in charter schools.

Other research, including through the Great Lakes Center and the RAND Institute, echo these findings. But that’s not stopping charter proponents from pushing their way into the school reform efforts under discussion in Lansing.

Let’s be clear though – MEA doesn’t oppose lifting the cap on charter schools – we just need to do it responsibly. We continue to support the findings of the McPherson Commission in 2002, which advocated for expanding the number of charters along with increases in charter accountability and financial transparency.