(From The Grand Rapids Press, December 10th, 2011)
By Harrison Blackmond and Amber Arellano
As the Michigan Legislature prepares to vote on sweeping education legislation that will remake public education in Michigan — especially in its poor neighborhoods — we call on our state leaders to make one central question their guiding light in their vote: What is best for our students, especially our disadvantaged students?
That question is at the heart of our organizations. It also should be the driving question in policymakers’ decision-making on whether to support lifting Michigan’s charter school cap without the addition of thoughtful language that will ensure any expansion of schools would be an expansion of quality charter schools.
Our organizations are agnostic about school governance. Indeed, we strongly support the expansion of high-quality school choices for Michigan students, especially African-American, Latino and poor children. Too many of them are tragically underserved by both charter schools and traditional public schools.
In fact, research shows overall, Michigan’s charter school and traditional public school achievement mirror one another: some schools are terrific; many more are mediocre to bad; and some are abysmal. After 17 years of state policy that has given little consideration to quality, it’s clear charter school expansion alone will not improve our state’s education system — or close our achievement gap. We need quality charter expansion.
Some charter school advocates say this legislation is a civil rights issue. We agree. As a state, Michigan has failed consistently to provide high-performing schools to our poor students and children of color. That’s our fault, the adults of Michigan, not the fault of students. Other states demonstrate that low-income children can and do perform at dramatically higher levels when adults educate them at dramatically higher levels.