Administrators: 98 Percent Of Michigan Teachers Average Or Above

Just 1 out of every 384 Michigan teachers deemed ‘ineffective’ by their school’s administration

By Tom Gantert | January 17, 2019

The Cato Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., recently rated Michigan’s public schools as 36th best in the nation, using a method that measures the relative performance of schools when the socioeconomic background of their students is taken into consideration.

Despite the state’s low ranking, Michigan’s public school teachers continue to get high marks from their schools’ administrators, who are required to evaluate teacher performance each year.

Four out of every 10 Michigan public school teachers in 2017-18 were deemed to be “highly effective,” the highest of four possible ratings a teacher can receive.

And just 282 of the state’s 99,916 public school teachers were given the lowest rating of “ineffective.”

Nearly all of the state’s public school teachers — 98 percent — received either the highest or second-highest rating, “highly effective” or “effective."

The figures were little-changed from the previous year, when public school administrators gave 39 percent of all teachers in the state the highest rating, while just 342 individual teachers were deemed to be ineffective.

“The system is rigged,” said Michael Van Beek, director of research for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “Administrators either don’t take this rating seriously or they have such low standards that everyone meets them.”

“The problem is that school officials are forgoing an opportunity to improve their schools,” Van Beek said. “They need to identify and differentiate good teachers from not-as-good teachers and get more in front of the good teachers and fewer kids in front of the bad teachers.”

Some of the teacher evaluations raise eyebrows, given the overall academic performance of their students in state school rankings.

For example, Pontiac High School has for years been judged a failing school in the statewide school assessments. State officials do not consider the socioeconomic status of each school’s student body when they create these rankings. One result is that schools in more affluent districts tend to rank high compared to schools in poor areas, regardless of how much additional learning a school provides in peer-to-peer comparisons.

The Mackinac Center, however, has created a school report card of its own, which does take into consideration the socioeconomic status of each school’s student body. Pontiac High School has received an F in its last five Mackinac Center report cards spanning the past 10 years, meaning that it does poorly even when compared to other schools whose students face similar challenges.

Nevertheless, Pontiac school administrators gave 40 percent of this school’s teachers the top rating of “highly effective” while the remaining 60 percent were deemed to be “effective,” the second-highest rating. No teacher at that building in 2017-18 was given a “minimally effective” or “ineffective” rating.

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.

New Business Subsidies Authorized in Michigan

Lawmakers overwhelmingly supported corporate welfare

By James M. Hohman | January 16, 2019

The Snyder administration’s final actions included the approval of new business subsidies. A last-minute spending bill allocated an extra $20 million to the Michigan Business Development Program and the Michigan Community Revitalization Program, both of which give grants or loans of state tax revenue to businesses. Lawmakers also approved a new rural speculation fund. And they authorized a further $300 million to the 21st Century Jobs Fund, which spends tax money on economic development.

We maintain a scorecard that tallies the business subsidies authorized by every Michigan legislator going back to 2001. Only the $300 million authorization fits our criteria for adding it to the scorecard.

The extra $20 million in MBDP and MCRP spending was a small part of a supplemental budget bill that authorized $1.4 billion in expenditures. It is not included in the scorecard because the vote, which is largely on things other than the MBDP and MCRP, is a poor reflection of legislator interest in business subsidies. The bill passed 84-23 in the House and 34-4 in the Senate, with bipartisan support and opposition.

The new rural speculation fund creates a structure for additional business subsidies, but this vote doesn’t authorize officials to spend any money. Policymakers would have to appropriate money in the budget in order to grant new subsidies. The bill passed 30-8 in the Senate and 81-25 in the House, both with bipartisan support and opposition.

The 21st Century Jobs Fund bill devotes $300 million to economic development programs. This spending was set to expire in 2019, but the bill extends the annual $75 million payments for another four years. This is the second extension of the program. The previous one is on the scorecard, as is the creation of the program in 2005.

This money pays for various business subsidy programs as well as the state’s tourism advertising campaign. It may pay for other things in the future when lawmakers allocate the money in annual budgets.

The $300 million extension of this program passed 74-34 in the House and 33-3 in the Senate. There was bipartisan support and opposition in the House and only Republican dissent in the Senate.

The complete scorecard covering votes going back to 2001 is available at www.michiganvotes.org/subsidies, and the method used to compile it is available online.