Seven years ago, Highland Park Schools went through a highly publicized period of turmoil and organizational upheaval. The troubled time for that Detroit-area district was brought on by a steep drop in enrollment and the deep financial crisis that followed. By contrast, the district's newest upheaval is rooted less in obvious signs of distress…

In Michigan's lower-income urban communities, where educational options are most heavily in demand, accessing the most suitable and desired schools is often limited by the availability and affordability of convenient transportation. Michigan could support low-income families' efforts to transport their children to better schools and boost these…

This brief examines the series of events that led to the Highland Park school district being converted to a system of charter public schools in 2012. Used as a strategy to help the district eliminate its large fiscal debt while still providing resident students with a local public school option, Highland Park's charter conversion is one of the…

In this latest installment of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's new "Schools of Innovation" series, we discuss how Berrien Springs school district is reinventing public school. This study examines how the district has become more racially diverse, enrollment is growing rapidly, and they are using that growth to inject some much…

In the passionate debates over providing equal educational opportunity for all children, it's frequently argued that large financial inequities create challenges for many public schools, particularly those in lower-income urban areas. This study compares the revenues and operating expenditures of Michigan's urban, suburban, town and rural school…

This publication is a transcript of Superintendent Angus McBeath's presentation to legislators and media at an Issues and Ideas Forum hosted by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Lansing, Michigan. McBeath discusses education reform in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, including: (1) Basic Elements of Reform; (2) School Employee Union Involvement;…

The system that finances Michigan's schools from kindergarten through 12th grade is a perennial topic of conversation among policymakers, parents, taxpayers and voters. A constructive discussion of this issue, however, requires a sound knowledge of the financial workings of Michigan's elementary and secondary school system. This knowledge is…