Opinion: A school voucher plan in Michigan? Here's what it should include

Over the past two weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that distinctions between state and religious institutions are increasingly obsolete. Last Tuesday, the Court held in Carson v. Makin that states using taxpayer funds to offset private school tuition may not exclude religious schools from participating in such programs. Less than a week later, the Court ruled in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District that a high school football coach was within his First Amendment rights to hold prayers on the school football field with his players.  

Although these cases have little immediate implications for Michigan schools beyond assurance that public employees could conceivably begin to hold prayers on school grounds, they’re important nonetheless to debates about how to move Michigan education forward. For example, last week’s decision on religious schools paved the way for Michigan’s Let MI Kids Learn proposal, the voucher-like plan by former Education Secretary and Michigander Betsy DeVos, to eventually use state tax dollars to fund religious education, among other expenses. 

Even after missing a key May filing deadline, supporters of the DeVos plan are still gathering signatures. Advocates for that proposal and others like it all over the country are fond of saying they’re part of a movement toward “educational freedom,” fighting for families trapped in community schools because of where they live. DeVos even has a new book out called “Hostages No More.” 

I’m a researcher who has spent 17 years studying vouchers across the country in official evaluations and in an advisory capacity, and I serve on the board of the US government’s new evaluation of Washington DC’s voucher program. I have been critical both in print and on social media of the DeVos plan in our state, because after nearly two decades of studying these programs I know on balance they don’t work very well.

What does work? Well, money for one thing. The evidence overwhelmingly shows —surprise! — money matters. In fact the latest study comes from right here in Michigan: after Proposal A equalized resources in the 1990s, and after districts passed bonds to further fund their schools, not only did academics increase but outcomes like reductions in crime followed as well! 

Beyond resources, though, there are some effective school choice programs. Even if the DeVos scheme never takes hold most Michiganders still have choices. Today, about 1 in 4 Michigan kids learn in a public school outside their resident district either in a charter school or through our Schools of Choice system that lets students learn in other districts. In Detroit alone, more than 20% of kids leave the city each day to attend schools in neighboring districts, and the vast majority of students who stay attend schools outside their home neighborhoods. 

The good news, too, is that charter schools have a much better track record than tax-funded private schools. My view is that Michigan charters need more oversight — we need to know a lot more about how these schools staff, fund, and teach our kids — but there’s some recent data to show that at least kids are learning in them, which is more than we can say for voucher systems in other states right now. 

What if the DeVos plan passed? Here are some things I’d want to see in the final law. Most important are tough anti-discrimination rules. In Maine, whose voucher program was at issue before the Court when it ruled last week, the state attorney general responded by requiring any religious schools that participate to follow the same anti-discrimination admissions policies as other private schools. If the DeVos plan passed, I would press for Michigan to treat all kids fairly as well. 

What about what gets taught? We know many voucher schools teach creationism for example, but what if they teach bigotry, too? Requiring private schools that took tax-subsidized tuition to meet the same academic standards, take M-STEP, and have the same teacher certification as districts and charter schools would help prevent some of that (though not perfectly). Same with oversight on private school financial records. Our public schools are required to have a parent dashboard to provide lots of information that private schools could have to disclose, too, if they want tax-supported students. 

The simple rule could be if you take a public check the public checks on you.  

Michigan schools faces enormous challenges and opportunities in the coming years. Any changes we make to our public and private schools — whether with the DeVos plan or others like it — should come with oversight, transparency, and good faith efforts to keep the needs of students ahead of partisans pushing ideological agendas. And we have to pay for what we require our schools to do. Educational freedom is already part of our school landscape, but with freedom comes responsibility. 

Josh Cowen is a professor of education policy at Michigan State University.