CER Responds to Education Trust-Midwest Report on Charter School Authorizer Accountability in Michigan
Press Release
Washington, D.C.
February 19, 2015
The Center for Education Reform (CER) criticized a new report out today by The Education Trust-Midwest titled Accountability for All: The Need for Real Charter School Authorizer Accountability in Michigan, taking issue with the methodology clearly used to fulfill preconceived notions.
“The issue is not that the report is calling for accountability. CER believes strongly in accountability and holding all schools to high standards. Performance-based accountability is essential in determining whether schools are doing right by students or not,” said Kara Kerwin, president of The Center for Education Reform.
“Michigan is a national model when it comes to charter school authorizing. There’s zero accountability in the traditional system, with Michigan spending 13 billion taxpayer dollars on K-12 public education, yet not a single traditional district school has been closed for academic reasons,” Kerwin continued.
“To make sweeping statements and conclusions about accountability by looking at just 16 charter school authorizers, or 40 percent of all authorizers in Michigan, is completely misleading,” Kerwin stated.
“It’s essential to separate fact from fiction in this report if Michigan’s charter school environment is to continue to meet parent demand and allow more children to access more schools that meet their unique individual learning needs,” Kerwin said.
A point-by-point analysis of claims made in the report can be found here.
