Much of the attention of the Michigan Legislature during the past week has been focused on passing various education reform bills intended to help us compete for a share of the $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” federal incentive funds.

Over a dozen bills have been introduced and debated in the legislature during the past few months.  The four key education reforms needed in Michigan, and addressed by this comprehensive bill package, focus on the following issues:

Charter expansion: The state is being encouraged to allow for the expansion of quality public charter schools.

Failing schools: The state is being encouraged to develop an intervention plan for the persistently lowest-achieving 5% of all public schools in the state, including public charter schools.

Alternative and administrator certification: The state is being encouraged to develop alternative pathways to teacher certification, as well as a certification process for school administrators.

Linking data to performance: The state is being encouraged to develop a system that uses student academic performance data as a significant factor in the evaluation of public school teachers and leaders.

There are a number of other issues that have been included in some of these bills, such as full-day kindergarten, starting school before Labor Day, compulsory attendance to age 18, etc.  It is unclear how many of these issues will remain in the package.

Because the House and the Senate have passed different versions of these bills, they are being assigned to a six-member Senate-House conference committee.  This committee will review the issues and draft a new set of bills (a conference report), which can then only be voted “up or down” by the full Senate and House of Representatives (no amendments or changes allowed).

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop has named the following members to the conference committee:  Senator Wayne Kuipers (R-Holland), Chair of the Education Committee; Sen. Gerry Van Woerkom, (R-Muskegon), Vice-Chair of the Education Committee; and Sen. Buzz Thomas (D-Detroit), the primary sponsor of the charter expansion bill.

House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Ferndale), has not yet publicly announced which three Representatives will serve on the conference committee.

It is expected the conference committee will produce their final report and the bills will be voted on in the Senate and House no later than Thursday, December 17.

Charter advocates are working to protect the strength of Michigan’s existing charter law and provide additional opportunities for quality charter schools to open in the state.

There is still a lot of work to do on these bills, and it is likely that  changes will occur before the process has been concluded. To read the specific bills being considered by the conference committee, please click on each link below:

SB 926 (Thomas) – Charter Expansion (school aid act)
SB 981 (Kuipers) – Charter Expansion & Linking Data to Performance
HB 4787 (Melton) – Charter Expansion & Failing Schools
HB 4788 (Johnson) – Failing Schools (school aid act)
HB 5596 (Pavlov) – Alternative Certification for Teachers

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