PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Careers
  • People
  • Projects
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • Donate

Our Work

Civil Rights Commission Should Retract Recommendations that Discriminate Against Low-Income, Minority Children

  • November 23, 2020
  • Tressa Pankovits

Responding to pressure from hundreds of public education advocates, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission (MCRC) on November 23 will hold a public hearing to “address concerns” over its characterization of charter schools.

The MCRC is charged with investigating and resolving civil rights violations in the state, not creating new ones. Yet that’s precisely what some recommendations do in an MCRC report released last month. The report,Equity in Education,caps a two-year investigation into public education inequities and makes recommendations to lawmakers for resolving them.

Many of the MCRC’s recommendations are solid: increasing access to early childhood education, improving food security for low-income children, adding summer and after-school programs, and more. But the report advises increasing discrimination against a particular group of low-income, minority children.

It recommends amending Michigan’s funding formula to punish public charter school students by giving them just 75 percent of the state per-pupil funding every other Michigan public school student receives. When all sources of school funding are considered, Michigan charter schools already receive about $2,780, or 20 percent, less per pupil than traditional district schools. Now, the MCRC wants to take a quarter of the state funds away from those students and give it to school districts they don’t attend.

Read the full piece here.

Related Work

In the News  |  June 12, 2025

Kahlenberg in The Assembly: One Critic of Race-Based Admissions Says Colleges Can Still Improve Diversity

  • Richard D. Kahlenberg
In the News  |  June 12, 2025

Kahlenberg in The New York Times: What Happens if ‘Harvard Is Not Harvard’?

  • Richard D. Kahlenberg
Op-Ed  |  June 6, 2025

Weinstein Jr. for Forbes: More Colleges Freeze Hiring And Suspend Salary Increases

  • Paul Weinstein Jr.
Op-Ed  |  June 5, 2025

Manno for Fusion Magazine: A Plan for Prudence

  • Bruno Manno
In the News  |  June 5, 2025

Kahlenberg on Reasonably Happy with Paul Ollinger: Has Affirmative Action FAILED?

  • Richard D. Kahlenberg
In the News  |  June 3, 2025

Kahlenberg in CBS News: Colleges are slightly less diverse as admissions officers seek ways to adapt post-affirmative action

  • Richard D. Kahlenberg
  • Never miss an update:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
PPI Logo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Donate
  • Careers
  • © 2025 Progressive Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved.
  • |
  • Privacy Policy
  • |
  • Privacy Settings