Charter schools could grant an enrollment preference to neighborhood children from low-income families under legislation approved Thursday by a panel in the Michigan House of Representatives.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, would give a charter school's board of directors the option to adopt an enrollment preference for students from a specified geographic area if 70 percent of the public school students who live in that area qualify for free- and reduced-price lunch.
Chang said her goal is to help schools that want to better serve low-income, neighborhood children.
"They should have the opportunity and the tools available to do so," she said. "This is one tool, and it's optional, and I think a good way to make sure that we're serving the most vulnerable of our kids."
The bill was approved 15-1 by the House Education Reform Committee.
Rep. Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield Township, cast the lone vote against the measure, saying she views it as "unnecessary" and a possible limitation on school choice.
"Putting things in place that are going to limit parent choices for other parents in the area - I don't think that's why those schools were set up in the first place," she said, referring to charter schools.
"The original point of setting those schools up wasn't to limit a choice for any parent. It was to offer choices for everyone, for all parents."
As of now, charter schools only have the option to grant an enrollment preference to siblings of a student who attends the school or children whose parents work at the school. Otherwise, when a charter school reaches capacity and a lottery is held to fill any openings, all students must be treated equally, regardless of whether they live near the school or 30 miles away.
Chang said she's hopeful the bills will eventually be approved by both chambers in the Legislature, given the bipartisan support the proposal has received. "We'll keep talking to people and talking to our friends in the Senate, and hopefully it will move forward," she said.
Two charter schools in the state - Charlton Heston Academy in Roscommon County and the James and Grace Lee Boggs School in Detroit - have expressed in the enrollment preference, said Alicia Urbain, vice president of governmental and legal affairs for the Michigan Association of Public School Academies.
"It has the ability to give low-income parents a choice to attend a school that's closest to them," said Urbain, whose association represents the state's charter school sector. "So it's not about helping schools. It's really about helping the low-income kids that live close to a school that may not have means to get to another school."
At least three associations representing traditional public schools were opposed to the bill: The Michigan Association of School Boards, the Middle Cities Education Association, which represents urban school districts, and American Federation of Teachers-Michigan.
Under the legislation, if there's more demand than capacity from low-income students who reside in the geographic area where the enrollment preference is offered, the open slots would be doled out through a lottery process.