TAKE ACTION TODAY!!!!! BILL WAS PASSED

The House of Representative passed SB 618 late evening today......there will be a cap of 300 in 2013, 500 in 2014, and unlimited thereafter.


It now looks like the Michigan House will vote on SB 618 (the Charter School bill) this week; perhaps as soon as tomorrow. There are several Repbulican representatives who do not agree with this bill that lifts the cap on charter schools in Michigan, but they are reportedly under extreme pressure to vote in favor of this bill.

Email or call your state representative right away. Contact information can be found at http://msg4svc.net/cdhgi/430108/45/95024/3132/0/S/0/0/wqsy.html .

Here’s what to say:

Urge them to vote "No" on SB 618.

1)Tell them that unchecked expansion of charter schools will hurt your district and your students by siphoning even more resources away from your neighborhood schools.

2)Tell them that the research conducted on charter schools by independent experts, including Western Michigan University’s Gary Miron, demonstrates that children do no better in charter schools than in traditional neighborhood schools.

3)Tell them that this bill’s lack of requirements for charter schools to meet the same accountability and transparency standards is totally unacceptable to you as an educator and as a citizen of Michigan who pays taxes that support public education.

WRITE your MI House Representative TODAY!!!

1)The research conducted on charter schools by independent experts – including Western Michigan University’s nationally-recognized charter school researcher, Gary Miron – demonstrates that children do no better in charter schools than in traditional neighborhood schools.
2)Publicly paid tax monies should not be spent on “for profit” companies that want to siphon off funds that should go to public schools. A public school’s profit is the children and their education.
3)The legislature needs to focus their efforts on providing the necessary support for all schools to provide what research says will yield the greatest results for our children: small class sizes, more and better teacher training, greater parental involvement and adequate resources, supplies and tools for student learning.

4)Increasing the number of charter schools should only come with the requirement for the same accountability and transparency standards that is expected of public schools. SB 618’s minor improvements in charter accountability do nothing to outweigh the unrestricted expansion of charter programs.

A letter from MEA regarding CHARTER SCHOOL Performance

I am publishing to the blog today a letter that was written by the president of the MEA, Steve Cook. Please take a few minutes to read it as it outlines the research done on charter schools and the truth behind their performance in this state over the last 20 years. President Cook has sent this letter to every representative in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Dear Representative:

I am writing you to reiterate the position of the Michigan Education Association regarding Senate Bill 618, which is currently awaiting action on the House floor.

The MEA continues to oppose SB 618, along with the rest of the Senate’s so-called “education reform” package (SBs 618-624, 709-710). As a whole, these bills are a collection of unproven concepts that do not help our neighborhood schools provide a better education to all students.

Of particular concern in SB 618 is the unlimited expansion of charter schools through removal of the charter school cap. The premise behind charter schools was that through the innovation and creativity they could achieve, charters would not only be successful in and of themselves, but also help neighborhood schools improve. But that simply hasn’t come to pass through our 20-year experiment with charter schools.

The research conducted on charter schools by independent experts – including Western Michigan University’s nationally-recognized charter school researcher, Gary Miron – demonstrates that children do no better in charter schools than in traditional neighborhood schools. While some high-performing charters may outperform their neighborhood counterparts, that is the exception, not the rule – and the lessons they are learning in those quality charters are not translating to traditional neighborhood schools, either through collaboration or competition.

A cursory glance would reveal that a list of schools deemed to be failures in the early 1990s, when charter and choice experiments began, are still deemed to be failures in the eyes of most observers. The competition created through these experiments on our students has failed to produce any broad, meaningful improvement in the education available to all children or in the operation of school districts.

Since our support of the McPherson Commission’s recommendations in 2002, MEA’s position on charter schools has been consistent – increasing the number of charter schools should only come in concert with an increase in the accountability and transparency standards for those charters. SB 618’s minor improvements in charter accountability do nothing to outweigh the unrestricted expansion of charter programs, often run by for-profit entities that siphon even more resources away from our neighborhood schools.

MEA urges you to vote no on SB 618. Rather than focusing on expansion of unproven concepts, we hope you’ll look to provide the necessary support for all schools to provide what research says will yield the greatest results for our children: small class sizes, more and better teacher training, greater parental involvement and adequate resources, supplies and tools for student learning.

Sincerely,

Steven B. Cook, President Michigan Education Association