Report: Michigan gets 'F' on open enrollment

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(The Center Square) – A new report gives Michigan an “F” grade on open enrollment, which allows K-12 students to transfer to a different public school than the one they are assigned to.

The report from Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, evaluates open enrollment laws in all 50 states across seven categories.

Michigan received a zero in all categories but two.

The Center Square spoke with the report’s author, Jude Schwalbach, in an exclusive interview. Schwalbach said Michigan has a lot it could do to improve education opportunities for its public school students.

“Unfortunately, Michigan did not improve its open enrollment law this year. It continues to tie with four other states for fourth to last place, getting an F grade,” Schwalbach said. “Michigan could improve its law by strengthening its current policies so students can transfer to any public school with extra seats and stopping districts from artificially capping transfers.”

Under open enrollment laws, K-12 students are allowed to transfer to public schools other than their residentially assigned schools, if seats are available.

The report found that, in 2024, only 16 states had “strong” open enrollment laws. That means that about 39.4 million K-12 public school students, or 80%, reside in states with “weak or ineffective” open enrollment laws.

Schwalbach that students benefit from more accessible open enrollment options.

“Many students use these programs to access better schools or specialized courses, such as Advanced Placement classes, shorten their commutes, access smaller class sizes or attend schools that are a better fit.,” Schwalbach said. “However, many states' policies are weak, failing to maximize students' transfer opportunities.”

In the report, Michigan received a 35/100 score in the seven categories listed.

Of those points, 30 were from statewide cross-district open enrollment. That means the state received partial credit for requiring a cross-district enrollment policy, but that policy is “voluntary or limited.”

To round out its score, it received only five points out of 15 available for statewide within-district open enrollment policy. That means that policy is also “voluntary or limited” in Michigan.

In every other category – which include aspects of open enrollment like charging transfer tuition, discrimination based on disabilities, and more – Michigan scored zeros.

Throughout the nation, the report found that more than 1.6 million students are utilizing open enrollment. In Michigan, those students made up 10% of all publicly-funded K-12 students.

Schwalbach said he hopes Michigan policymakers will take action to address the issues highlighted in the report and pass more accessible open enrollment laws.

“Reason Foundation's open enrollment best practices offer a roadmap to states so they can improve their policies so more students can attend public schools that are the right fit,” Schwalbach said.