Michigan’s Republican-led Senate has passed a measure that removes the 150-school cap on university-sponsored charters. The bill is now stalled in the House.
The way the current cap works: If a charter is considered "high performing," it is re-labeled a School of Excellence, and removed from the cap, which leaves a vacancy for a new university-sponsored charter school to fill.
Here's how Central Michigan University's Center for Charter Schools explains it:
On January 4, 2010, Michigan became the first state in the country to enact a “smart cap.” This smart cap allows charter public schools that meet the law’s criteria of “high performing” or “beating the odds” to be eligible for reauthorization as a “School of Excellence” outside the 150-school cap placed on state public universities. Reauthorizing a school as a School of Excellence allows quality charter public schools to be removed from under this cap, creating a vacancy through which a new school can be chartered. Through this smart cap, growth will occur in Michigan’s charter sector. Because this growth is contingent on quality, it provides a strong performance incentive for Michigan’s charter schools movement.
The new bill, SB 618, would allow an unlimited number of university-sponsored charters to open in Michigan.
John Austin is president of the state Board of Education. He says the way the current bill is written, anyone can open a charter regardless of past performance.
He says "there’s specific language and definitions that can be put in the bill [to make] sure it’s a quality, decent operator, and/or preventing those who have only operated bad schools either here or around the country."
Austin says he’s pro-charter, but not at the expense of quality. He says the bottom line is: "We don’t need more charter schools per se; we need more quality charter schools."
The Republican-led House has until Friday to vote on the measure before lawmakers leave for the holiday break.
