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.
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