A Senate bill package would hurt some of the top-performing schools in the state. Under the guise of transparency and equality, the bills hold charter schools to unequal standards and jeopardize their ability to serve students effectively.

Senate Bills 943, 944, 946 and 947 mostly impact charter schools that contract with a private education management organization. While charter schools are public entities, many of them contract with EMOs to operate certain services such as hiring employees, providing professional development and managing custodial and food services.

It's not unusual for schools to contract with private companies. Conventional public schools regularly do this to provide food, custodial and transportation services. Senate Bills 943 and 944 would require just the education management organizations that serve charter schools to provide and report additional audited financial information. No other private organizations — including businesses that contract with conventional public schools — are required to report. State law already mandates charter schools to be audited each year and publish all sorts of financial information on their websites.

Charter school authorizers — the public universities and community colleges that oversee and support charter schools — will have extra reporting to do if Senate Bill 946 passes. It requires them to create and present at a board meeting a report at least twice a year “detailing the authorizing body’s efforts to provide oversight.” Why such a report is necessary or helpful is anyone’s guess.

Senate Bill 947, potentially the most damaging in the bill package, would harm some of the top-ranked public schools in the state. It will prohibit charter schools from leasing buildings owned by an education management organization or anyone affiliated with it. Because charter schools do not receive any funding specifically for school buildings, many of them lease their buildings from their EMO. This bill would make it difficult for certain EMOs to establish new charter schools in the state.

National Blue Ribbon Schools are among the schools that may be most harmed by this legislation, if it passes. In 2024, two of the 12 schools in Michigan that received this prestigious award were charter schools. And both schools are run by an education management organization using a financial arrangement that Senate Bill 947 would ban.

The underlying theme of this legislation implies that there’s something wrong with the way charter schools contract with their education management organizations. Yet, there’s been no evidence provided that charter schools need more reporting requirements than other public schools. Charters have served Michigan families for three decades now. If there were serious problems with how they contract with education management organizations, they should have surfaced by now.

None of this will do anything to improve public schools in Michigan. The Senate bill package will make it harder for some of the state’s highest-achieving schools to continue operating. Lawmakers ought to support school models that have proven successful for thousands of Michigan students, instead of stifling their progress.

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