Although parents and students have some ability to choose among public schools, the existing system of K-12 funding has historically operated on the presumption that regional government entities possess taxation power to fund the provision of education services to all children who live inside their boundaries. Michigan’s 537 conventional school districts, governed by locally elected boards of education, are set up as the default formal learning option.[7]
Beginning in the early 1990s, Michigan lawmakers created a few exceptions to this standard model of providing public education services. Most districts now serve at least some nonresident students who live in neighboring districts but enroll via the Schools of Choice program. Districts enrolling such students get state aid on their behalf, and a growing number of districts have participated as their enrollments of resident students have shrunk over time. More students means more dollars under Proposal A, an opportunity for districts to grow budgets that no longer strictly depends on local tax revenues or population growth.
Charter schools — known in Michigan statute as public school academies — enroll more than 10% of public school students throughout Michigan, most commonly in low-income urban communities. First authorized in 1994, charter schools are independently governed public schools. Their funding depends entirely on families opting to enroll their children. While charter school enrollment consistently grew over the last two decades, the combined student count in public schools has fallen every year since 2003.[8]
Schooling options in the private sector have shrunk over time, too. In fact, religious and independent schools have faced even larger losses, at least to the extent comparable data is available. From 2009 to 2017, the 13.9% enrollment decline in Michigan private schools eclipsed the 8.4% loss experienced by public schools over the same period.[9] Even if every private school and home school student in Michigan had enrolled instead in a district or charter school, the total 2018 public school population would still fall well short of its recent peak in 2003.[*] The U.S. Department of Education forecasts the state's downward enrollment trend will continue at least another decade.[†]
A disproportionate share of the youth population decline occurred in the state's largest city. The Detroit school district's K-12 enrollment plummeted from 156,000 in 2003 to about 50,000 in 2018, before stabilizing.[10] Some blame more families exercising public school choice, enrolling in charter schools or neighboring districts, as the culprit for the demise.[11] However, the city’s population decline and changing demographics account for most of the lost enrollment.[‡]
While Detroit’s loss of students has been noticeably steep, most other districts have experienced some degree of declining enrollment in recent years. Of the 551 conventional school districts operating in 2008-09, nearly 80% of them enrolled fewer students 10 years later, including 14 districts that were consolidated, dissolved or taken over by the state. Of the 537 districts still operating today, one-third (175) serve student populations that are at least 20% smaller than a decade earlier.[12]
Fewer school buildings remain in use over time, though the trend has lagged behind the drop in student population. From July 2007 to July 2020, the number of Michigan K-12 public school buildings decreased by 9.2%, compared with a 12.9% drop in enrollment during the same time span. As a result, the average number of students per school fell from 446 to 428.[13]
The unexpected disruption caused by the recent pandemic deepened the enrollment decline in many public schools. Parents in many parts of Michigan experienced frustrations with the quality of the improvised distance learning programs for their children. School officials faced added uncertainty, caught between the governor’s emergency orders, families’ child care needs and competing opinions among parents and employees and their unions about reopening schools, mask mandates and other health protocols. The one-year drop-off of 61,940 in statewide public school enrollment in 2020 exceeded the total decline of the previous five years combined.[14]
[*] In 2002-03, total Michigan public school enrollment exceeded 1,713,000. The best and most recent available population estimates show 1,682,280 Michigan children ages 3 to 17 enrolled in any kind of school in 2018. “Historical Student Enrollment Counts Data” (Center for Educational Performance and Information, 2021), https://perma.cc/9CBW-6HUP; “Table S0901: Children Characteristics: 2014-2018 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates: Michigan” (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey), https://perma.cc/FJR6-AEDP.
[†] Michigan is forecast to experience an 8.4% decline in public school enrollment between 2016 and 2028. “Table 203.20: Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools, by region, state, and jurisdiction: Selected years, fall 1990 through fall 2028” (U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, March 2019), https://perma.cc/G2A5-NZDE.
[‡] Between 2002-03 and 2017-18, the city’s estimated school-aged population (5-18) declined by 88,700, accounting for about 83% of the district’s enrollment decline.