Editorial

This Fall Will Be the First Time There are Fewer Charter Schools

'Flood' of charters claim doesn't hold water

The Michigan Education Association’s online magazine, the MEA Voice, recently claimed there has been a flood of charter schools in Michigan.

The August edition of the magazine said: “Michigan opened the charter school floodgates in 2011 by allowing unlimited numbers of for-profit operators to locate without controls — drawing some of the worst-performing charters into the poorest cities.”

ForTheRecord says: In the 2013-14 school year there were 298 charter schools in Michigan, according to the state of Michigan. The figure for 2015-16 was 302 charters. When the 2016-17 school year begins next week, Michigan will have 300 charter schools.

That number may grow to 302 by midyear, according to the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. If it does not, though, this year will mark the first time since charter schools opened here in 1993-94 that the number of Michigan charters goes down.

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.