News Story

School District, Union Working Together to Try to Ban Charter Schools

Prohibitive language written into union contract that says union, district agree not to authorize or open a charter could violate state law

Charter public schools in Michigan have been blamed by many in the media and by advocates for more school spending as part of the reason conventional public schools have problems.

Now, one district in the state has taken action against the idea of school choice for students and parents, and its efforts may be breaking state law.

The Clintondale Community Schools district agreed with its teachers union to prohibit creating or authorizing charter schools within the district. In a memo of understanding that extended the union contract into 2014, it states, “No Charter Schools.” The memo was approved June 13, 2012.

School districts and unions can't stop charter schools from opening in their district, but they can agree that together they will not open or authorize one in the district. Conventional school districts in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Livonia, Suttons Bay, Eaton Rapids, Manistee, Baldwin, Center Line, Port Huron and Traverse City have all authorized charter schools to operate within their districts. Detroit Public Schools authorizes 12 charter schools.

The Public Employment Relations Act 336 says it against state law to negotiate with unions about "the decision of whether or not to act as an authorizing body to grant a contract to organize and operate 1 or more public school academies under the revised school code, 1976 PA 451, MCL 380.1 to 380.1852."

Clintondale Superintendent George Sassin, School Board President Jason Davidson, School Board Vice President Mark Titus and Clintondale Education Association Union President Kenneth Austin did not return requests for comment.

"It's unfortunate that any school district would want to limit or eliminate the opportunities they might want to offer their students in the future," said Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. "Other local school districts in Michigan have chartered schools, and there have been positive results in terms of student achievement. Every student in Michigan deserves a quality education in a quality school, so we should focus on what's best for the kids, and not what's best for the adults. That's not happening in this case."

Clintondale is located in Macomb County and had 3,650 students in 2012-13.

"This absolutely should not be in Clintondale's contract," said Audrey Spalding, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. "And the sad thing is, both the union and the district agreed to it."

(Editor's note: This story has been edited since its original posting. More information about the district and union agreement has been added.)

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Story

Lawmakers Move Away From Giving Land Banks Exclusive Privileges

Land banks that purchase tax reverted property before public buyers get a chance may soon see that perk disappear.

That has been a particular problem in Kent County, where the land bank has bought dozens of properties at cost before the property went up for auction. But long-promised changes to a Senate Bill have now been adopted and could end that practice. 

As originally drafted, Senate Bill 640 would have specified that land banks could purchase delinquent and abandoned property before free market buyers had their chance at public auction. That would have paved the way to making it even easier for land banks to dominate this portion of local real estate markets. 

When questioned about the bill last autumn, the office of Sen. Darwin Booher, R-Evart, who sponsored Senate Bill 640, said the language pertaining to land banks would be removed from the legislation. On Feb. 20 it was taken out.

On that date, the Senate Banking and Finance Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Booher, adopted a substitute version of Senate Bill 640 and approved it. The new version no longer has the language pertaining specifically to purchases by land banks. Instead it is focused on the auctions, which allow free market purchasers to buy tax reverted properties.

"This is certainly an improvement and appears to do a minimum of harm," said Audrey Spalding, director of education policy with Mackinac Center for Public Policy, who also is a national expert on land banks. "I hope the Legislature will continue by considering ways to stop land banks from the manipulative behavior we've seen in Kent County."

Technically, land banks are not allowed to buy property before the public gets a chance, but they sometimes do. In Kent County, for example, land bank officials have gotten around the law by having local governments buy the property before the auction and selling it to the land bank at cost. This has angered many investors and Realtors in the area who said they would have bought the properties if they had the option.

Currently, there are two types of auctions held on tax-reverted properties. Under the rules of the first auction, potential buyers cannot make bids that are lower than the amount of the delinquent tax bill owed on the property. Properties still available after the minimum bid auction are subject to a second auction, which does not include the minimum bid requirement. Bids made in the second auction would tend to be more reflective of the actual market value for the properties.

For a brief time, the committee considered allowing counties the option of holding just the minimum bid auction. Spalding said if that had happened the eventual impact of the bill could have been "catastrophic." Under the version of Senate Bill 640 that was passed by the committee, counties have the option of holding just one auction, but if they do so it must be the open-ended free market auction, not the minimum bid auction.

The reason given for allowing counties to opt out of holding both auctions was to save taxpayer dollars.

A measure that could potentially make it more difficult for land banks to be as aggressive as the one in Kent County remains parked in the House Local Government Committee. That legislation is House Bill 4626, sponsored by Rep. Ken Yonker, R-Caledonia.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.