K – 12 Education in Michigan

Nationally, K–12 education has been undergoing dramatic changes aimed to improve equity, adequacy, and efficiency. The school finance equalization movement has increased the centralization of school finance and reduced variation in revenues across local school districts. Michigan’s Proposal A stemmed from concerns about inequities in property tax burdens and school spending across districts, and fits within the latter part of this broad movement. Two other leading movements have increased school choice and increased reliance on accountability systems. Michigan has been one of the innovators in fostering more flexible school choice, and has recently adopted reward systems based on student academic performance. This chapter describes recent reforms in the nation and in Michigan, as well as future challenges. We begin by presenting a broad view of the structure and state of K–12 education in Michigan. There are 524 K–12 and 31 less-comprehensive school districts in Michigan. The charter school movement has added another 210 districts as of fall 2002. As in other states, in Michigan there are two more aggregate layers of government institutions that shape the provision of education. At the state level, the Michigan Department of Education (DOE) and State Board of Education provide leadership and supervision. These offices inform the legislature about schools’ financial needs, approve the certification of teachers, and formulate policies to guide as well as to respond to legislative mandates. In addition, 57 intermediate school districts (ISDs) serve as a liaison between the DOE and their constituent school districts. These regional education centers are established as separate taxing units and are financed from a combination of federal, state, and local sources. They provide a range of services according to local needs, including administrative and technology support, community outreach, and instructional services such as special and vocational education. Michigan is currently the state with the eighthlargest school enrollment. In keeping with the national trend, enrollment in Michigan decreased through the 1970s and 1980s and increased in the 1990s.1 Between 1990 and 1999, Michigan’s average daily attendance increased by 8.5%. This places it in the middle nationally (thirty-fourth) in terms of the rate of growth.2 Despite the sizeable shifts in aggregate numbers of students, the race/ethnicity composition of Michigan’s K–12 students has been relatively stable over the last fifteen years. In 1986, 76.4% of students were white, 19.8% black, 1.8% Hispanic, and 1.2% Asian 15