Superintendents Falsely Claim Charter Schools Shortchange Poor Children
State data shows charters serving higher percentage of low-income students than traditional public schools
Seventy-one Michigan public school superintendents signed a letter that ran on a state-wide news site that claimed that charter schools were serving middle class students while “creating a permanent underclass in our inner cities.”
But state of Michigan data for the 2011-2012 school year shows there is a higher percentage of free- and reduced-lunch eligible students in charter schools than in conventional public school districts. Charter schools had 69.8 percent of students on free- and reduced-lunch statewide while 46.2 percent of the students statewide in conventional public schools were on free- and reduced-lunch. That data is from the Center for Educational Performance and Information. Students qualify for free- and reduced-lunch based on their household income.
The letter was part of an attack superintendents have waged statewide on a series of educational reform bills. The letter refers to House Bills 6004 and 5923 and Senate Bill 1358 and a school funding proposal known as the Michigan Public Education Finance Project.
The 71 superintendents who signed an op-ed that ran in MLive stated: "Instead, the choices we have created through market-based reform have produced cookie-cutter public school academies serving middle class students while creating a permanent underclass in our inner cities."
Michael Van Beek, education director for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said the superintendents were factually incorrect.
"I think they were trying to paint a picture of charter schools that is misleading," Van Beek said. "It's just plain false what they said."
In general, many charter schools are serving students in inner cities, Van Beek said. When you add up the enrollment of students in charters in Flint and Detroit, it makes up about half of the 120,000 students enrolled in charter schools in the state, Van Beek said.
Superintendents Ron Veldman of Coopersville in Ottawa County, Dan Behm of Forest Hills in Kent County, Rich Satterlee of Alba in Antrim County, Ron Caniff of Grandville in Kent County, and William Mayes, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Superintendent David Britten of Godfrey-Lee Public Schools in Kent County said before he commented, he wanted to see the stats of the "inner cities." He said, "Our letter did not mention statewide."
In the combined districts of those 71 superintendents, 48 percent of the students were on free- or reduced-lunch in the conventional public schools, while 54.2 percent of the students at the charters operating within these 71 superintendents' districts were on free- or reduced-lunch.
Detroit Public Schools has about 81 percent of students qualifying for free- and reduced-lunch. The charter schools in Wayne County have about 78 percent free- and reduced-lunch students.
Britten didn't respond to a follow-up question asking if the intent of the letter was to imply that public school academies didn't take in their fair share of poor students.
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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The False Social Concerns About Right-to-Work
In the Detroit Free Press, Stephen Henderson expresses concern that right-to-work states are doing worse than forced unionism states in a number of social trends.
This past decade has not done well for decreasing poverty rates around the nation, and there’s likewise been an increasing rate of people that lack health insurance. The data is not entirely clear on whether these trends are in favor of right-to-work or forced unionism states, however.
The Census Bureau's American Community Survey has the most up to date information on poverty rates. Using the one-year estimates for 2004 through 2011 — the earliest available on the Census Bureau’s poverty data page — shows very similar increases between right-to-work and forced unionism states. When accounting for the size of each state, the average right-to-work state's poverty rate increased by 20.1 percent while the average forced unionism state’s poverty rate increased by 23.4 percent.
Thus, it is not true that, at least over this period, right-to-work states have a higher growth in poverty rates.
There is a wide variation among the two groups of states, with increases in rates increasing between 0.1 percentage points to 4.8 percentage points in right-to-work states and between 0.6 percentage points to 5.2 percentage points in forced unionism states. Michigan had the distinction of increasing its poverty rate the most over the period.
Obviously, there are more factors that lead to state-level poverty than whether or not union employees are required to pay dues or agency fees. A simple regression using right-to-work as a dummy variable and comparing to the growth in the poverty rate from 2004 to 2011 shows no significant relationship between having or lacking a right-to-work law and a growing poverty base.
So even though the average right-to-work state had a smaller increase in poverty rates, it's unlikely that right-to-work was much of a factor.
The number of people without health insurance displays similar trends over the same time frame. On average, right-to-work states saw their rates on uninsured increase by 17.7 percent while forced unionism states increased by 15 percent. These averages show a different direction in trends from the growth in poverty rates, but the difference between the two groups is slight. There’s an even wider range on the changes in states. Some, like Massachusetts and Mississippi, saw its rate of uninsured decrease, though the typical state saw it increase.
The simple regression with right-to-work and the 10-year change in the percent of people lacking health insurance yields similar results: No relationship between having a right-to-work law or not and the growth of the uninsured population.
On factors like GDP and personal income, however, the simple regression shows a much stronger relationship.
Michigan passed right-to-work last week and residents should not expect this to increase the number of people without health insurance or the number of people in poverty. But residents can expect positive economic effects from this law.
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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