Labor Voices: Cyber Charters are Failed Experiment

Nov 18, 2017

In Wednesday’s Labor Voices column in The Detroit News, MEA President Paula Herbart called for an end to the failed cyber charter school experiment in Michigan.
 
Clear evidence shows that Michigan's expansion of cyber charter schools has been an abject failure, yet our state's lawmakers continue to fully fund these for-profit online ventures at the same level as traditional neighborhood schools, which have higher operating costs.
 
Herbart writes in the column: “Here in Michigan, legislators continue to ignore the poor academic achievement of cyber schools and pour millions into this failed experiment. Even Gov. Snyder recognized that funding for cyber charters needed to be scaled back when he proposed in last year’s education budget that they receive only 80 percent of normal per-pupil funding — acknowledging that cyber charters have a fraction of the overhead that traditional brick and mortar schools face.

“Unfortunately, the Legislature rejected the governor’s proposal — but many from both parties in Lansing are hoping he pushes again for this change next year.” Read the full column.