Earlier today, the Michigan Senate approved a measure that ultimately removes the limits on the number and location of charter schools in the state, ending a battle fought almost entirely along party lines. The House approved the legislation yesterday, and Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to sign it into law.
The charter bill is one among several education reform initiatives embraced by Snyder that also would mandate the state’s cross-district enrollment policy in every school system and would extend dual enrollment in colleges and universities to students in private high schools. Of those three efforts to enhance school choice, the charter initiative has enjoyed the greatest momentum. The cross-district enrollment measure, which would require any public school to open its doors to students from other districts as long as it has seats, has stalled in committee.
Over at Jay Greene’s blog, Matt Ladner applauds the Legislature’s action to expand charter schools, but admiringly hopes for the day “when complacent check-book choice districts might reconsider their decision not to admit students whose parents happen not to be able to afford a $400,000 mortgage.”
$400,000 mortgage!?!?! There are plenty of homes to be had for a fraction of that amount in the particular district you have singled out in the past. Still, I realize you just can’t help playing the class warfare card again and again. By the way, the bill is stalled because some of the affected communities spoke out strongly with well-reasoned arguments. What is there for those communities to reconsider?