MAISA Executive Director William Miller has drafted a message that MAISA and MASA members can use to communicate with their local media or legislators. The message urges lawmakers to halt the race to pass the package of bills that would greatly expand charter schools and cyber schools without ensuring high quality for students.
Members are urged to use or adapt this language to communicate with your stakeholders, including media and lawmakers. This is fast-changing legislation, however, so keep in touch with your associations and monitor our government relations updates.
Sample communication:
School Administrators urge a halt to charter/cyber school push
The Michigan legislature should halt the misguided race to pass a multi-faceted package of charter/cyber school bills and change the focus of the debate from creating more schools to creating quality schools.
The nine-bill package would remove the cap on the number of charter schools in the state, allowing an unlimited number of charter schools to open anywhere in the state, rather than restricting them to low performing districts as is the case under current law. These proposals would give owners of charter school buildings property tax abatements. The bills also would allow parents and teachers to vote to convert a traditional public school into a charter and would allow for an unlimited number of online cyber-schools.
The chair of the Senate Education Committee, Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair Twp., says the bills are designed to prevent students from being “trapped in a failing school.” We think the bills will simply create more schools that will fail.
Senate Bill 618, which lifts the cap on charter schools, passed the Senate in a close 20-18 vote on Oct. 6. We urge House members to oppose this legislation.
This state doesn't need more schools, it needs quality schools. A review of the language of the proposals didn't find any components that assure quality.
What really needs to change is the tone and focus of the debate about education. Michigan policy makers need to improve opportunities for our youth by focusing on teaching and learning, not ideology or political gain.
Michigan needs to focus on education from preschool to post secondary success. We need to establish adequate funding, reevaluate the curriculum, raise graduation rates and improve teacher preparation and instructional quality. We must focus on post-secondary success strategies because today and in the future, Michigan workers will compete against knowledge workers from around the world, these bills do nothing to advance that critical objective.
