School choice opponents have had a good run in Michigan in the last hundred years. After failing to pass a ballot measure with Ku Klux Klan support in 1924 that would have effectively banned private schools, they’ve won nearly every time they’ve gone before voters since then. Does that mean we must resign ourselves to the limited school choice we have and just keep trying to eke out little improvements in the government K-12 system?

The anti-choice crowd doesn’t win at the ballot because Michigan public schools do a great job and spend wisely. Reading and math scores keep sinking even though we spend 33% more in real terms (to teach fewer students) than we did in 2013.

Public education isn’t great in any state, but Michigan is now worse than most. The joke used to be that any 49th-ranked state could usually count on Mississippi to spare it the indignity of placing 50th. Not anymore. The Magnolia State ranked in the top 20 for fourth grade reading and math in the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, while Michigan — once reliably in or near the top half of the class — is behind 40 other states in fourth grade reading. The best we can say now is that we’re the leader of the back of the pack.

Not surprisingly, Michigan also provides zero funding for private school choice, which means it’s in a 15-way tie for last place. The other 35 states have all adopted vouchers, tuition tax credits, or education savings accounts that help parents choose the safest and best schools for their children. Twenty-two states adopted or enhanced such policies after the lockdowns, when many parents became unhappy with what the schools were, and weren’t, teaching.

COVID may have shifted the Overton Window toward more educational freedom, but Michigan policy regressed as a Democratic trifecta repealed the types of education policies the Mackinac Center championed (and Mississippi coincidentally adopted).

The primary, but limited, forms of tax-supported choice in Michigan are public charter schools (about 10% of students) and cross-district public school choice (about another 10%). Homeschooling (single digits) and private schools (about 10%) receive no aid or favorable treatment.

The most powerful argument for these options is that parents choose them over the free alternative for reasons important to them, and it doesn’t cost them the price of a house in a particular school district. The parents’ choice is paramount because “the child is not the mere creature of the state,” as the U. S. Supreme Court put it in 1925 when it stopped the Klan’s attempts to force all kids into public schools.

Today, the Michigan Education Association is the state’s biggest roadblock to more choice. The union was behind our 1970 constitutional amendment that makes private school choice programs almost impossible without help from the U. S. Supreme Court, which has not been forthcoming.

Here’s what we can do while we keep working to remove anti-choice language from our constitution. First, we can encourage our governor(s) to opt in to new federal school choice benefits that are part of the recently passed congressional legislation (One Big Beautiful Bill Act). Next, we can limit MEA influence in schools; retain, reward, and place teachers based on performance; restore school report cards; restore the focus on reading in K-3; enhance transparency; and protect charter, home and private school options.

Full private school choice is still our lodestar. But we don’t believe in doing nothing until we can do everything. We can and must help students now who don’t yet have access to the choice policies we will one day bring about with your help.