Although Michigan offers parents educational choices through Schools of Choice, public charter schools, online academies and dual enrollment, the state has yet to tap into a resource of educational opportunity that’s ready and willing to serve tens of thousands of students: Michigan’s private schools.

A generation ago, private school choice — giving public aid to help parents pay private school tuition — was an unproven novelty nearly everywhere in the United States. This year, more than half the states have these types of programs, serving about 400,000 students, and that number keeps growing.

But before we can have a serious conversation about the merits of adopting such a program in Michigan, we need to better understand private schools in this state. To that end, the Mackinac Center partnered with the Michigan Association of Nonpublic Schools to survey the state’s 600-plus private schools. The results of this survey were combined with data collected by the Michigan Department of Education to produce a new report titled “A Survey of Michigan’s Private Education Sector.”

Our findings shed new light on the state of private schools in Michigan. For instance, these schools are relatively diverse: About half are Catholic or Lutheran, but a sizable chunk are independent and unaffiliated, and there’s a host of other religious affiliations well represented.

Policymakers should take heed because each student educated outside the public system represents money the state does not have to spend. Last year alone, the slightly more than 100,000 private school students reduced government spending by at least $750 million.

Private schools offer an attractive alternative for many families who can afford the price tag. While some expensive options exist, nearly 80 percent of Michigan’s private high schools charge less than $10,000 tuition, and 92 percent of elementary and middle schools charge less than $7,500. The average tuition is $7,600 for high schools and $4,700 for primary schools. And more than one-third of schools offer some financial aid.

Even so, most private schools need funds beyond tuition to run. Survey respondents reported that the total cost to educate one student is nearly 25 percent greater than the rate charged to families, on average. 

Because of their cost and limited scholarships, private schools serve a smaller share of low-income students than do charter or traditional public schools. This inequity highlights an opportunity to enhance basic fairness and freedom in Michigan education. Depending on the details of a program’s design, publicly funded vouchers or tax-credit scholarships would begin to level the playing field for poorer families.

Private schools have not been immune to Michigan’s downward enrollment trend. They serve 9 percent fewer students than five years ago, a slightly larger drop than their public school counterparts have experienced.

Calculations based on the survey responses suggest about 21,000 empty seats exist in Michigan’s current crop of private schools. Some of these could help students trapped in failing Detroit public schools — if not for the state’s restrictive constitution.

Article VIII, Section 2 of the Michigan Constitution prohibits any direct or indirect “payment, credit, tax benefit, exemption or deductions, tuition voucher, subsidy, grant or loan of public monies or property” to underwrite student enrollment at any nonpublic elementary or secondary school. Changing it would require a statewide initiative or referendum.

An encouraging sign from the survey is a significant willingness to help serve. Despite legitimate concerns that educational choice might come with repressive strings, a full 71 percent of private school leaders said they would be “likely” or “very likely” to receive students on publicly funded scholarships.

For now, students and families seeking private education in the state have to rely on their pocketbooks or look to the future. Now that we know that private schools are willing and, most importantly, able to take poorly served, publicly funded students, it’s time to start breaking down the obstacles that block parents and policymakers from taking advantage of them.

In a speech before the Ann Arbor Board of Education this May, teacher Dan Ezekiel painted a bleak picture of compensation for teachers.

Ezekiel, a science teacher who also is involved in local politics by serving on various county and city boards and commissions, was concerned about the pay of starting teachers in the district. He said he makes $3,000 less than he did eight years ago.

Michigan Capitol Confidential put in a Freedom of Information Act request for teacher salaries in Ann Arbor for the years 2010-11 to 2014-15. Teacher salaries have become complex in recent years with some districts tying compensation to the health of their general fund and student enrollment. Any analysis of teacher pay needs to be done on a district-by-district basis to be accurate. The review of Ann Arbor’s salaries is part of a series Michigan Capitol Confidential has done this year.

Ezekiel’s salary in 2010-11 was $79,830 and $79,177 in 2014-15, a $653 reduction over a four-year span. And Ezekiel wasn’t alone. Many of the educators in Ann Arbor who had reached the top of the pay scale saw slight reductions, according to a review of teacher salaries.

Michigan Capitol Confidential looked at the salaries of 30 Ann Arbor teachers. Their average salary was $71,960 in 2010-11, which increased to $76,025 in 2014-15.

According to the Michigan Department of Education, the average teacher salary in Ann Arbor was $71,025 in 2010-11 and $72,036 in 2014-15.

The FOIA request for the salary information did not include any additional money teachers could have earned doing extra duties, such as coaching team sports or teaching in summer school. The salaries in the FOIA were in some cases a few thousand dollars less than what the district reported to the state pension office. The state pension office factors in all compensation for pension calculations.

For example, one Ann Arbor teacher saw her salary go from $58,594 in 2010-11 to $63,702 in 2011-12, then $70,352 in 2012-13. That teacher was then paid $72,385 in 2013-14 and 2014-15. However, that teacher's salary that was reported to the state pension office was $75,605 for 2014-15, a $3,220 difference than what was reported in the FOIA.

Ezekiel and other teachers in the district have had concerns about the salaries of younger teachers in the district.

“I eat lunch with all these young moms who are new teachers. Their husbands think they’re crazy. They’re working 60-hour weeks without raises. Can’t they find a job at the same or better pay and with saner working conditions?” Ezekiel told the board.

But his comments don’t hold up when compared to the teacher salaries reported in the FOIA.

For instance, a teacher who started in 2010-11 with a bachelor’s and a salary of $39,276 earned $42,853 in 2011-12. That salary increased to $47,393 in 2012-13 and then to $48,643 in 2013-14. That amount was then frozen in 2014-15. Another teacher who also started in 2010-11 at $39,276 saw the same increases to $42,853 (2011-12) and $47,393 (2012-13). But then she saw her salary increase to $56,450 in 2013-14, where it remained for 2014-15. Although the FOIA gives no details on raises, it’s likely that this second teacher saw an increase to $56,450 due to attaining more education.

Like just about every traditional public school in the state, Ann Arbor pays its teachers based on two criteria – years of experience and the level of education attained.

That first teacher saw a 24 percent increase in salary over four years while the other teacher had a 44 percent increase.

But many veteran teachers saw slight decreases over the same period. Twelve of the 30 teachers reviewed saw their salaries decrease, although the decreases were minimal. For example, two teachers went from $83,572 in 2010-11 to $82,888 in 2014-15, a $684 reduction. Another teacher went from $72,003 in 2010-11 to $71,960 in 2014-15, a $43 reduction. The top-of-scale salary for an Ann Arbor teacher can vary from $65,616 (bachelor’s) to $85,992 (doctorate).

Ann Arbor’s enrollment was steady over the four years. The district had 16,946 students in 2010-11 and 16,901 in 2014-15.

Like just about every other district in the state, Ann Arbor has faced rising pension costs.

According to the district’s audited reports, Ann Arbor Public Schools paid $13.2 million to the state for pension costs in 2010-11. Just four years later, that payment was $31.6 million, an extra $18.4 million.

Christine Stead, the vice president of the district school board, said in an email that increased pension costs have “effectively eroded general funds for schools.”

Stead said the state has to change the way it funds schools if it wants to provide a high quality of education. See Stead’s entire statement here.

Ben DeGrow, the director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, called the statewide school pension system “unsustainable.”

“Trying to cover the state’s retirement promises is taking significant resources away from attracting and rewarding quality teachers to serve students today,” DeGrow said in an email. “Some teachers will eventually reap the rewards after leaving the classroom, but the current system leaves many other teachers with the short end of a stick. The continual need to keep feeding an unsustainable pension system certainly isn’t going to help Michigan improve the weak results we’re currently getting for students.”

The Mackinac Center has proposed closing the school pension system to new employees and giving them a defined contribution 401(k)-type account. The state of Michigan took that path in 1997 when it closed its defined benefit pension system to new employees.