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By Molly Macek
Proposed legislation would expand Michigan’s Schools of Choice law to K-12 students statewide. Opposition from one of the state’s wealthiest districts threatens to block it, which would prevent some of the state’s neediest students from accessing better public schools.
House Bill 5310 would strengthen the current open enrollment law by allowing students across the state to enroll tuition-free in the public school that works best for them. Districts would be required, as long as they have open seats, to accept nonresident students who apply. They would be prohibited from turning away students based on their characteristics or abilities. Districts would not be required to accept nonresident students who have been expelled or suspended under certain circumstances.
Only a handful of districts currently choose not to enroll nonresident students through Schools of Choice. They only enroll students who live within their district’s boundaries. Residents from one of them, Grosse Pointe, testified in opposition to the bill at a recent legislative committee meeting.
One of the residents testified that students from surrounding districts would be unprepared for the standard of education that Grosse Pointe provides its K-12 students. He said Grosse Pointe residents invest a lot of money into their schools and that the new law “would allow for an influx of students who frankly aren’t prepared to take the instruction that has been set up.”
The proposed legislation would not allow just any student to be “dropped into” a school district, however. Nonresident students interested in enrolling in a district would apply, and the district would only accept them if there were space. Students could apply as early as kindergarten, at the beginning of their education journey.
Another resident insisted that only students who live within the district’s boundaries should benefit from the education that’s been funded by the local taxes Grosse Pointe residents pay for their schools. In reality, Grosse Pointe schools spent nearly $23,000 for each student it enrolled in 2024, and only $7,000 of that was funded by local sources. That is less than the average local revenue districts receive of $7,100 per student statewide. The remainder of the funds came from state and federal taxpayers.
Another Grosse Pointe resident suggested that districts would lose their ability to make student enrollment decisions under the legislation, calling it a “one-size-fits-all change.” But nothing in the bill suggests this would happen. On the contrary, subsection 16 of the legislation states:
[E]ach district shall determine all of the following for each school in the district for the following school year: (a) The number of seats available in each grade of each school in the district based on each school's maximum capacity. The number of seats available must not be determined based on specialized programs. (b) The number of pupils expected to attend school in the district. (c) The number of seats available to nonresident pupils.
It also requires the district to post its capacity and the process used to determine that capacity on its website. With these improved transparency standards, parents would have the information they need to decide where to apply for Schools of Choice. If a nonresident student is denied enrollment, parents would have the ability to appeal the decision to the state board, according to the bill.
A former legislator expressed concern at the meeting for district teachers who would be faced with the challenge of educating nonresident students with “poor test scores.” “It is unacceptable to burden teachers and districts with this,” she said, if educator accountability is going to be based on student achievement.
But isn’t the goal of public education to ensure equal access to quality education? And isn’t it the role of teachers to provide a quality education to every child in their classrooms, regardless of the students’ background or acumen?
An effective teacher is one who produces net gains in student achievement. If the quality of public education in Grosse Pointe is as strong as the district claims it to be — with 100% of its teachers rated as effective — shouldn’t the district be able to help students from less advantaged backgrounds succeed, too?
Michigan teachers aren’t rated based on flat achievement scores. Instead, the student’s growth on assessments or “learning objectives metrics” are used to evaluate a teacher’s performance. Grosse Pointe teachers — and all effective educators — ought to be able to help low-performing students improve their scores.
In fact, 98% of the state’s public school teachers were rated as effective last year, no matter how many Schools of Choice students they served.
The former legislator ended her testimony by asserting, “Our educators should not be punished for circumstances they cannot control.” Replace “educators” with “students,” and lawmakers have a more apropos statement to consider when deciding the fate of Schools of Choice and the students who need it most.
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