Of Michigan’s 100 Best Public Elementary And Middle Schools, 30 Are Charters

This gubernatorial candidate would shut many down for hiring a professional management company

By Tom Gantert | February 23, 2018

Some of the top-ranked public schools in the state would be shut down if one of the candidates running to be Michigan’s next governor gets his way.

Shri Thanedar is one of four individuals seeking to be the Democratic Party candidate for governor. Thanedar made news recently when he stated on Twitter and at a town hall in Ann Arbor that he would shut down for-profit charter schools, according to Bridge Magazine.

“Shri believes in all public schools — including traditional and nonprofit charters,” said Rachel Felice, spokesman for Thanedar. “However, he will use every tool at his disposal to remove the profit motivation for companies who would take advantage of our public school system out of Michigan’s education equation.”

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy released its new report card for elementary and middle schools on Feb. 22. To improve the validity of school-to-school comparisons, its report card adjusts for the socioeconomic background of a school’s student body when evaluating its academic performance.

Of the top 100 public elementary/middle schools statewide with the overall highest academic performance on the report card, 30 were charter schools. Many of those charters contract with for-profit education management companies.

The charter school Hamtramck Academy was the top-rated elementary/middle school in Michigan, according to the Mackinac Center report card. Hamtramck Academy is operated by the for-profit company National Heritage Academies.

Many other charter schools across the state received an A on the Mackinac Center report card and were operated by for-profit education management companies.

“Parents are looking for access to schools that give their children a better chance to succeed,” said Ben DeGrow, the education policy director for the Mackinac Center. “Certain politicians don’t like the fact that many parents have chosen quality schools that happen to contract with for-profit companies to provide instruction. State leaders should be focused on giving families access to educational options that work best for them, not putting on ideological blinders to go after schools that have made legal contract arrangements that they don’t like.”

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.

Detroit Schools Will Sell to a Prison, But Not a Charter School

Moves criticized by parents and community members

By Ben DeGrow | February 22, 2018

After spending months fighting to prevent the sale of an abandoned building to a charter school, Detroit’s superintendent supports the sale of another property to a prison.

The Detroit Free Press reported last week that Superintendent Nikolai Vitti recommended accepting the sole $200,000 offer for vacant Detroit Public Schools Community District property from a developer in conjunction with a new Wayne County Justice Center. However, Detroit's school board narrowly rejected an offer to sell after member LaMar Lemmons insisted that the community did not want a correctional facility in the area. Two other board members joined him to stop the sale.

Community opinion didn't inform the district's attempts to keep an actual school from occupying one of its former buildings. On Nov. 30 Vitti told a legislative committee that DPSCD officials found a 2017 law against deed restrictions "problematic" in their fight to bar the sale of a former district building to Detroit Prep, a successful charter on the city's east side.

The superintendent blocked a property sale to a competing school, which some legislators saw as an attempt to flout the law. His actions come despite the neighborhood association favoring the new school location, and the school needing extra space to match its growth. But he apparently is now fine with selling property that will be part of a project to house convicted lawbreakers. While the Mackinac Center has no position on whether the district should sell a property to a correctional facility, the combination of moves certainly looks bad.

As Detroit parent and education activist Bernita Bradley wrote: "New schools are a threat, but new prisons are the answer to helping DPSCD gain new funds. Wow! Is the war against charters really this serious for you?"

The good news is that DPSCD backed down from its legal fight when the state Legislature squeezed the last ounce of ambiguity out of the law banning deed restrictions on school properties. Detroit Prep reached an agreement with the district, and is now on track to remodel the building and move into it by December.

And, at least for now, a new Wayne County Justice Center will have to be built without former school district property.