2021 tied as second-lowest year for Michigan public charter school launches

(The Center Square) – The three new charter schools launched in Michigan in 2021 is tied with 2019 as the fewer new public school academies opened since the nontraditional public schools were allowed to open in 1993.

“Only three new schools is a little on the low side, but over the past few years, we’ve always been in the single digits when it comes to new charter schools opening in Michigan each year,” Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA) spokesperson Buddy Moorehouse told The Center Square. “Back when the cap on charters was lifted in 2011, there were a lot of charter school opponents who predicted we’d see an explosion of new schools every year, and obviously, that never happened.”

Charter schools differ from traditional public schools. Schools in the charter school system are allowed more freedom in budgeting, staffing and curricula.

The state approved publicly funded, privately managed charter schools in 1993, and lifted the previously imposed cap on the university-authorized schools in late 2011. By law, charter schools are held to the same academic expectations as traditional public schools.

Although 31 schools were authorized in 2012, 32 in 2013, and 17 in 2014, the number of newly authorized schools has been in the single digits ever since: six in 2015; seven each in 2016 and 2017; and four in 2020.

“Opening a new charter school in Michigan is an extremely complicated process, as it should be,” Moorehouse said. “COVID might have played a small part in the low number of schools this year, only because there were a couple other schools looking to open, and their enrollment numbers weren’t quite where they needed to be yet. Some parents might be especially leery this year about changing schools.”

According to data provided by MAPSA, a total of 153 public school academies have closed since 1995. Only one of those schools closed immediately prior to the fall 2021 school year.

Ben DeGrow, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, however, told The Center Square he cites these closures as one distinct measure of public school academies’ accountability to students and their parents compared to traditional public schools.

“Charter public schools face greater accountability than their district counterparts do,” he said. “If a charter school fails to deliver what parents want or meet the standards set by its authorizer, it’s subject to the ultimate consequence, something that’s never been a real threat to the conventional system. Greater accountability has created space for high-quality charter operators to give more Michigan students access to better educational opportunities.”

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