Academic Failure Forces Charter School Closure

When did this ever happen in a traditional public school?

By Tom Gantert | June 29, 2016

Allen Academy, a charter school in the city of Detroit, will close its doors due to poor academic performance, according to the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. The school had 898 students this past school year. It opened in 2003.

A Michigan charter school shutting down because it didn’t make the grade shouldn’t be news — a few open and a few close every year for various reasons. But it might be news in the newsrooms of media outlets that have been critical of allegedly lax oversight that permits failing charter schools to stay open.

For example, in May, The Atlantic magazine erroneously reported: “In reality, the operators of Detroit’s charter schools almost never close them because of poor academic performance. So even a school where no child is achieving at grade level can continue enrolling new students.”

There were 27 charter schools within the city of Detroit that had closed as of August 2015, nine due to poor academic performance.

Gary Naeyaert, the executive director of the pro-charter Great Lakes Education Project, said the closing exposes a false narrative led by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and other Detroit elites that the charter sector is unregulated and running amok.

“The closure of Allen Academy proves that Michigan authorizers are closing charters that don’t live up to their promise,” Naeyaert said in an email. “We look forward to the day when traditional public schools are expected to actually teach students to read in order to stay open.”

Naeyaert says that in contrast, the state of Michigan has never closed a school due to academic reasons, a claim the Michigan Department of Education has not refuted.

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.

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More Mythical School Funding Cuts Reported

But even with no cuts, school boards face big challenges

June 29, 2016

Remarks by Eastpointe Mayor Suzanne Pixley in the Detroit Free Press imply that school revenue declines made it harder for East Detroit Schools to repay debt incurred to cover overspending in previous budgets.

The Free Press reported: “She said the district got itself of out an $8 million deficit and while test scores were down in 2008, like other districts, the city lost 46 percent of its taxable value when the economy tanked, hurting revenue to the school district.”

East Detroit’s overspending problem began in the 2008-09 school year and continued until 2013-14. The district finally paid off the debt in June 2015.

ForTheRecord: The collapse in real estate values in 2008 did eventually result in lower property tax revenues for municipalities across the state – but that is not what determines how much schools get for day-to-day operations. Michigan public schools’ main revenue stream is the product of a complex state formula that was not directly affected by local property tax declines.

In other words, East Detroit Schools’ “deficit” problem had nothing to do with property tax receipts. Audited financial reports and state databases reveal the district’s overspending debt peaked at $8.2 million in June 2010. Over the next four years, the debt was gradually reduced to $7.9 million (2011), $7.5 million (2012), $5.0 million (2013) and $1.3 million (2014). It was wiped out in 2015.

In each year from 2011-12 to 2015-16 – which includes the years East Detroit was paying down its debt – the district received more money per student for school operations.

East Detroit Schools’ problems were aggravated by a 25 percent decline in enrollment from 2012 to 2016, from 4,303 students to 3,227 students. Since state funding follows the student, when students go elsewhere so does the money they bring in.