LANSING, MI-- The following is a press release from Representative Sara Cambensy's office in Lansing:
Only days after a closed-door deal was made between legislative leaders and the governor’s office, the Michigan House and Senate swiftly approved a revised Return to Learn bill package without addressing concerns from teachers and superintendents who had been left out of the process. Republican sponsored House Bills 5910 (Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield Twp.), 5911 (Greg Markkanen, R-Houghton), 5912 (Andrea Schroeder, R-Independence Twp.), and 5913 (Anette Glenn, R-Midland) have drawn significant criticism from legislators and local school districts who feel the package fails to meet the challenges students and teachers face during the COVID-19 pandemic and encourages private, for-profit education management corporations to exploit this unprecedented crisis. State Rep. Sara Cambensy (D-Marquette), a vocal critic of the original Return to Learn plan, voted against the package.
“Whether it’s changing the school funding formula to count pupils at a lower percentage rate from the previous school year than we do now, or rescinding all protections in the School Aid Act regarding virtual learning that make it easier for for-profit virtual academies to come into our communities and lure students away, the Return To Learn bill package is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said Representative Cambensy. “As a taxpayer, you should be irate that your legislators allowed ‘pandemic learning’ to open the door to out-of-state companies that take per-pupil money away from your community school districts.”
Working for the public schools for 10 years as the Director of Adult and Community Schools before becoming a state legislator, Representative Cambensy saw firsthand the effects of students who left high school, signed up for an online virtual academy, and eventually came back to get their GEDs.
“Once these for-profit charter schools get their pupil accounting money — the same amount as your bricks and mortar public schools get — they couldn’t care less about the students,” said Representative Cambensy. “They quit calling and checking in on them. The success rates of the for-profit virtual academies are around 10%. It’s an absolute racket and these are your hard-earned tax dollars being wasted.”
“We need to get Betsy DeVos and her money out of politics in Lansing. When you see sign advertisements along the roadsides in the U.P. for new virtual academies with a 616 area code, it’s not a coincidence. They are coming from the Grand Rapids area, where the DeVos family resides and runs virtual charter schools now. The Return to Learn bill package has DeVos’s name all over it. Simply put: a vote for these bills is a vote against your local public school district.”
