Editor's note: This story has been updated with comments from Detroit Public School Community District that challenges the list produced by the Michigan Association of Public School Academies.

Charter high schools in Detroit earned the top 10 spots in a list of school scores on the SAT college admission test. The list ranks schools by the average score attained by each school’s 11th-graders on the SAT, which is now administered to all high school juniors statewide.

The Michigan Department of Education recently released the 2018 M-STEP and SAT scores for every school in the state. The Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA) analyzed that data and came up with the top 10 list.

However, Detroit Public School Community District Nikolai Vitti said the list is missing one of his conventional high schools.

“Your list ignores Communications Media and Arts (CMA), which is a traditional public high school in DPSCD, which had an average SAT score of 890 and would be ranked as sixth on your list,” Vitti said in an email. “Obviously your list excludes any mention of Renaissance High School and Cass Tech, which would rank one and two on your list. Charter schools are not neighborhood schools and do not serve all children with special needs. Enrollment in charter schools is dependent on active parent choosers, no different than Cass Tech and Renaissance.”

However, Buddy Moorehouse, spokesman for MAPSA, said that their organization doesn't consider Communication Media and Arts an open-enrollment school.

"We don’t classify that school as open-enrollment because it requires prospective students to have a signed letter of recommendation before they’re admitted," Moorehouse said in an email. "The other open-enrollment DPSCD schools don’t require that, and neither does any charter school in the state. From the form, they’re looking to refuse admission to students with behavior issues. An open-enrollment school is one that allows any student to enroll with no such restrictions or requirements."

The test results are proof that Michigan charter schools are a success, according to a state organization that promotes charters.

“This is extremely significant,” said Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, the state charter school association. “We’re not talking two or three of the top 10 being charter schools – we’re talking all 10 of the top 10 being charter schools.”

The rankings apply to open-enrollment high schools, or schools whose admissions are not based on individual student qualifications. All charter schools admit on an open-enrollment basis, while a few magnet schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District have selective admissions criteria.

Specifically, three of 18 high schools run by the district admit students on the basis of an assessment and meeting a base score on an entrance exam. These schools were not included in the rankings.

Students at the highest-ranking charter school, Detroit Edison Public School Academy, averaged 918.3 on the SAT, an assessment that measures aptitude in areas of reading, writing and arithmetic. The highest-performing conventional public school, Western International High School, ranked 11th overall in Detroit and scored 849.7.

Quisenberry called charter schools’ SAT performance “noteworthy on every level.”

“It's one more piece of evidence that when it comes to achievement and performance, charter schools are leading the way,” he continued. “The scoreboard doesn’t lie.”

In analyzing the data, the charter school association discovered that on the SAT test, the 10 highest-scoring open-enrollment schools in Detroit were all charter schools

Charter school enrollment in the city of Detroit has remained steady over the last several years, according to the National Association of Public Charter Schools.

There were 50,139 students enrolled in Detroit charter schools in 2009-10 and that number increased slightly to 50,460 by 2016-17, the latest year for which data is available.

Enrollment in the conventional public school district has plummeted over that seven-year span. There were 89,488 students enrolled in Detroit’s public school district in 2009-10 and that dropped to 44,890 students by 2016-17.

Michigan residents and businesses soon will recognize an estimated $379.5 million in savings on their utility bills as a result of Tax Cuts and Job Act passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in December 2017. The federal tax cut reduced corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Investor-owned utility companies are among the beneficiaries. Because they are regional monopolies with rates regulated by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), their customers are entitled to some of the tax savings. The MPSC estimates that business and residential customers of the state’s electricity and natural gas utilities will see an average savings of $1.95 a month.

The MPSC last December ordered 13 Michigan utilities to calculate their savings under the tax law that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2018. The commission then approved approximately $370.8 million in rate cuts for Michigan utility customers over the summer, including an estimated $269.6 million in savings for electric customers of the state’s two largest, Consumers Energy and DTE Electric.

“When regulated utilities have lower costs, those savings get passed along to consumers,” said James M. Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “So one of the benefits of the federal tax cut is lower electric rates, and that will be appreciated by households and businesses.”

According to an MPSC estimate, Michigan utilities will see a $3.7 billion reduction in their current and future long-term tax liability as a result of the tax-law changes. “The Commission’s goal was twofold,” said Commissioner Rachael Eubanks: “Return the maximum amount of rate relief possible to utility ratepayers, and do it in an expeditious manner. We’re proud to have been able to accomplish both,” she said.

With the first round of tax-reform generated customer credits approved last spring, lower rates started appearing in customers’ July bills. While the decrease varies for each utility’s residential customer, the bill of the average Michigander will go down $1.93 a month.

“In January, the MPSC began the process of calculating rate savings for customers of investor-owned electric and gas utilities,” said Nick Assendelft, a spokesman for the public service commission. “In February, it started a three-step process that balanced thoroughness and opportunity for stakeholder input with expediency.”

“Commission staff reviewed the law’s impact on previous rate orders; filed testimony, rebuttals, briefs and reply briefs; and participated in settlement meetings to expedite the process,” he continued. “MPSC staff worked collaboratively with utilities and other stakeholders to complete in just six months the Credit A bill adjustments. They have now launched the second round of Credit B calculations and the Commission anticipates announcing this fall more customer rate relief. That will be followed by a third round of analysis — Calculation C — to capture future, long-term impacts that the lower federal corporate tax will have on customer rates.”

Customers of other investor-owned Michigan utilities are also seeing tax cut credits under the MPSC’s recent order. The credits include $8.6 million for customers of Indiana Michigan Power Co., and approximately $50.3 million divided between customers of Alpena Power Co., DTE Gas Co., Michigan Gas Utilities Corp., Northern States Power, SEMCO Energy Gas Co., and Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp.