A new bill would allow charter schools to have the same access to funding from local millages that public schools get.
Supporters of the bill say it’s only fair to let charter schools have the same access to community funding that public schools get.
Republican State Senator Dave Hildenbrand is the bills primary sponsor. He said it’s not fair to have millages from community members only go to help the public schools.
“Charter schools across our state, we have over 250 of them, are public schools but just chartered and developed a little bit differently. Well none of those students who attend charter schools benefit from these enhancement millages. It only goes through the traditional public schools.”
Chris Wigent is the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Public School Administrators, which has come out against the bill. He said the bill leaves too much unanswered.
“So what happens when a charter school closes as some of them do. What happens to the equipment or books, what happens to whatever else that is purchased with those enhancement dollars. Do those go back to the ISD, do they go back to the local district where they are? Are they transferred to a different charter school outside the county where those people haven’t paid the taxes? How does that work.”
Senator Hildenbrand said there is still time to make amendments to the bill to cover those concerns.