Commentary

Michigan Charter Schools a Smashing Success

The new study by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes is the most thorough analysis ever done of Michigan’s public charter schools, and the results are almost entirely positive.

Of the 56 different outcomes tested, CREDO found 52 positive results for public charter schools and their students when compared to conventional public schools.

First for its rigor: The study matched individual charter school students to students attending the conventional schools those charter school students would have attended. Among other variables, students were paired based on grade level, gender, race, income status and prior test scores. The study then compared the annual gains in reading and math test scores between these charter school students and their “virtual twins” in conventional public schools.

This was done for 85,650 students from 273 different charter schools over a five-year period. No other study to date has used this level of detail or this amount of data to analyze school performance in Michigan, with the second-best settling for comparing school-level averages.

The positive results hold for nearly every category of school and student CREDO analyzed.

For instance, it didn't matter if a charter school was located in an urban, suburban, town or rural area — students from each of these geographical categories averaged better learning gains than their peers in conventional schools. Rural charter school students did the best, making gains equivalent to more than three months of learning compared to their non-charter counterparts.

The trend held across school type as well. Charter schools students in elementary, middle and K-12 (multi-level) schools all outperformed conventional school students. Elementary school students, making up 72 percent of all charter school enrollees, averaged the greatest learning gains of these groups.

Another encouraging finding was that average learning growth for charter school students increased the longer those students were enrolled in the charter school of their choice. Students start demonstrating superior average learning gains after just one year in a charter school, but those gains grow over time. By their fifth year, students in charter schools averaged annual learning gains equivalent to about three and half months of learning (and about a full year’s worth of learning gains over the entire period).

The positive learning gains for charter school students were consistent across the achievement spectrum as well. Both low-achieving and high-achieving students in charter schools had better learning gains in reading and math compared to their counterparts in conventional schools.

In the study’s own words: "[Charter schools] move low-performing students ahead with larger gains, and preserve more of the learning for high-performing students."

Due to its scope and rigor, this new Stanford study is the most definitive analysis of Michigan public charter schools to date. Its methodology isn’t perfect, but it's the best that's ever been done, and it clearly shows that overall, charter schools in Michigan are an enormous success.

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

Consumers Are Best Arbiters of Auto Market

Electric and hybrid vehicles take back seat at this year's Detroit auto show

DETROIT — Government bureaucrats who think they know best what people should buy and drive need to spend some time at the Detroit auto show.

If they did, they’d see that people spend about as much time looking at hybrid and electric cars as they do flossing.

That was evident again Monday when the international media descended upon Cobo Center to kick off the North American International Auto Show. They flocked to the new Corvette Stingray and kicked a lot of truck tires.

Occasionally, someone stopped to see what was plugged in.

Therein lies the state of the automotive industry in America. Despite what environmental activists and some members of Congress want, consumers are king and they’re still mostly interested in sedans, SUVs and trucks.

“Ultimately, it’s the market that matters,” said David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor and chairman and co-founder of AutoHarvest Foundation. “The consumer is the voter.”

The numbers back that up. Ford Motor Co., for example, sold more F-150 trucks last year than any other vehicle in its portfolio and the truck has been the nation’s No. 1 selling vehicle for almost every month of the last 30-plus years. For 2012, three of the top five best-selling vehicles were pickups.

Ford sold more than 645,000 F-150 pickups last year, and in the month of December alone sold more than 2,200 a day. By comparison, Ford sold 245,922 Focuses last year. 

Auto executives I talked with Monday said they expect most consumers will continue buying big, with a move among first-time buyers to smaller vehicles. But even those buyers trade up to bigger vehicles as they get older and earn more.

However, to a person, the executives I spoke with said that if the government’s long-term fuel restrictions are not adjusted, consumers will see the price of cars and trucks increase by far more than the $2,500 the government estimates the standards will cost.

By 2025, vehicles will have to meet an average of 54.5 miles per gallon, double the current standard. That will add $5,000 or more to the price of new cars and trucks, depending on the make and model, executives said.

Automakers are working to meet fuel rules that were designed without regard to market or consumer demands, and they'll continue to do so. But the industry and the economy will be much better served if government gets out of the way and quits driving blind.

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.