(Editor's note: This Op-Ed
originally appeared in The
Detroit News on Nov. 4, 2009.)
Michigan's school funding debate has
been cast as a choice between two ideas: Budget cuts or tax hikes. Yet there is
a $600 million alternative that has been ignored by key players in the debate.
Taxpayers
should take note because the failure to explore this option suggests any tax
increase for education will be wasted.
In
the next few months, the U.S. Department of Education will dish out $4.35
billion in "Race to the Top" money to the states. Michigan would be more likely to receive
$600 million of this money if it adopted four reforms: Expand the number of
charter schools, create a stronger alternative teacher certification program,
link student performance data to individual teachers and systematize reform
procedures for failing schools.
There
are good reasons to be skeptical of federal money, which often bureaucratizes
the schools and advances a questionable agenda. But such concerns are typically
overlooked by the governor and many in the Legislature, who desperately seek a
school spending fix. In this case, the proposed reforms show promise.
Consider
charter schools. A growing body of evidence indicates that charter schools
improve student achievement, and a recent study demonstrates that New York City charter
schools have closed achievement gaps at an unprecedented rate.
But
charter school expansion in Michigan is
effectively blocked by a legislative cap on the number of charter schools that
can be authorized by state universities, which approve most of the charter
schools in Michigan.
School employee unions traditionally have fought raising this cap, arguing that
there is insufficient evidence that charter schools improve student
improvement.
As
for alternative teacher certification, Michigan
law theoretically permits it. But every teacher is still forced to obtain a
degree specifically in education — no other specialty will do.
This
approach discourages many talented individuals from becoming teachers. Yet
research shows teacher quality is key to student performance, and Race to the Top's
multiple certification routes would permit accomplished professionals to enter
teaching without needing to obtain a new degree.
Michigan's student performance
measurements, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program and the Michigan
Merit Examination are reported school by school. But the results are not linked
to teachers to allow teachers' successes to be more easily analyzed. Of course,
such an analysis is complex — many factors go into student achievement — but
the analysis is prohibitively difficult if the raw data is hard to obtain, a
point that Race to the Top recognizes.
As
for the fourth reform, the Legislature is advancing bills to more aggressively
reconstitute perennially failing schools. The bill most likely to pass,
however, would make it harder to privatize noninstructional services, robbing
districts of a major cost-saving tool.
So
why hasn't Michigan
adopted these reforms, especially when the state could land an extra $600
million for schools?
The
school employee unions view them as threats. They fear more charter schools
because the schools are not typically unionized, and reconstituted schools may
follow their example. Tracking individual teachers' progress could lead to
performance pay and threaten the union's rigid compensation system.
Yet
such concerns are primarily about union power, not better educational outcomes
for kids.
If
the governor and Legislature refuse to consider constructive change, taxpayers
should reject any proposed tax hikes. There's no reason to feed more money into
a system that refuses the most moderate reforms.
#####
Michael
Van Beek is director of education policy at the Mackinac
Center for Public Policy, a research
and educational institute headquartered in Midland, Mich.
Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the
author and the Center are properly cited.)