In his newspaper blog, Battle Creek Enquirer reporter Justin Hinkley stated that because school choice doesn't provide transportation, low-income families often are unable to access choice while wealthier families take advantage and leave their home districts. 

"That's turned some schools into ghettos of poverty," Hinkley wrote.

However, a 2013 study on Michigan charter public schools done by Stanford University, and a recently released study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy proves Hinkley's claim is wrong.

The Stanford University study found that charter public schools had significantly more "economically disadvantaged" students than traditional public schools.

Dev Davis, research manager at CREDO at Stanford University, said they found that 70 percent of the charter students were economically disadvantaged, meaning they were eligible for free or reduced price meals. She said 55 percent of the traditional public school students were economically disadvantaged.

Also, the Stanford study found that black and Hispanic students did "significantly" better in reading and math when in charter schools than their peers in conventional public schools.

Audrey Spalding, education policy director at the Mackinac Center and author of the study, "The Public School Market in Michigan: An Analysis of Schools of Choice," found that Michigan students were moving to districts with a lower proportion of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch. The state's "schools of choice" program is making districts more economically diverse, not less, she said.  

Hinkley, who did not respond to a request for comment, is not the first to claim that choice benefits more affluent students.

Seventy-one Michigan public school superintendents signed a letter in December 2012 that claimed charter schools were serving middle-class students even though data from the Michigan Department of Education doesn't back that claim.

Michigan Senators and Representatives missed 1,093 votes in 2013, which in total was lower than 2012, but higher on a percentage basis because fewer votes were taken this year compared to last.

The information on Michigan's 38 senators and 110 representatives is compiled on the Missed Votes Report at MichiganVotes.org.

The Senate took 665 roll call votes. The House took 591 in 2013, not counting purely procedural votes. Last year, 2,234 votes were missed. Legislators are missing far fewer votes today than in years past. In the 2001-2002 legislative session, legislators missed a total of 21,162 votes.

"The days of some legislators no longer showing up for work are long past," Jack McHugh, editor of MichiganVotes.org and senior legislative analyst at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said in a press release. "Legislators' habits changed almost immediately when MichiganVotes.org began making this information easily accessible."

MichiganVotes.org was launched in 2001.

One senator and three representatives missed 50 or more votes in 2013. Nine senators and 71 representatives missed no votes.

McHugh said that in most cases missed votes occur when legislators are called off the floor to address other legislative demands or when serious family or personal issues force a legislator to take a day or more off from work.

"Legislators are people, too," McHugh said. "No one should jump to conclusions or assume bad faith, but if a legislator demonstrates a consistent pattern of missed votes for months on end, voters have a right to ask why."

While large numbers of missed votes get people’s attention, McHugh said voters should be more concerned about the votes their legislators actually do take.

"Too many of these votes appear to serve the system ahead of the people," he said.

The full Missed Votes Report can be sorted by legislator name or the number of missed votes. MichiganVotes.org provides brief, plain-English descriptions of all bills introduced in the Michigan Legislature.