An op-ed written by the Mackinac Center’s Education Policy Director Ben DeGrow was published by the Detroit News today, bringing awareness to the need for more school choice in Michigan.

In the piece, published for National School Choice Week, DeGrow discusses how school choice brings hope to parents and students and is flourishing in other states.

Rigorous research is nearly unanimous in affirming the benefits. Choice boosts academic outcomes and graduation rates. Further, public schools have demonstrably improved from the extra injection of healthy competition.

The tide has turned nationally. Most states now offer some form of K-12 scholarship aid to families that choose a private education.

States with broader choice see public schools maintain or grow per student financial support. Meanwhile, more students find suitable education pathways that better prepare them for college or career. Parents routinely express extremely high levels of satisfaction.

Every child in Michigan deserves the opportunity to access an effective education. Here’s hoping Detroit’s next big education rally celebrates a host of new options that brighten the future for many students and their families.

DeGrow also spoke with Mike Rogers on The Frank Beckmann Show this week about how choice creates the opportunities Michigan’s most disadvantaged students need.

“More dollars is not going to be the answer for what these kids need,” DeGrow said. “It’s more options and more opportunities, probably outside that school system.”

Parent Liz Roe, a friend of the Mackinac Center, also penned an op-ed published by the Lansing State Journal earlier this week. In it, Roe explains how moving her two children, who have learning needs, to private school helped her family.

We finally felt like Mia was in a place where she belonged, where she received individualized assistance for her learning from teachers trained specifically to help her succeed. Instead of a Band-Aid or a diluted curriculum, she was given tools that fit the way she learned. She finally got up in the morning wanting to go to school! As for Mia’s older sister, the smaller class sizes in her new school allowed her teachers to get to know her better and see her struggles.

Read Ben DeGrow’s op-ed at the Detroit News.

Listen to DeGrow’s interview on The Frank Beckmann Show.

Read Liz Roe’s op-ed at the Lansing State Journal

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