“Free Market” Charter Schools Wreak Havoc in Michigan
by Shawgi Tell / March 9th, 2026
While the essence of the “free market” chaos, anarchy, and violence underpinning the charter school sector is the same across the U.S., the form it takes varies from state to state for different reasons.
In Michigan, for example, about 80% of charter schools are openly for-profit charter schools, which is a disproportionately high number of such charter schools. Thus, the competition, bedlam, and failure in Michigan take on a different and more intense form than other states. The history and size of the state and its education arrangements also play an important role in shaping the education landscape.
Three other facts are worth noting before proceeding: first, 53% of Detroit students attend charter schools, which are governed by unelected private persons. Second, 36% of Michigan’s charter schools fail in the first five years. Third, there are about 365 charter schools in Michigan.
A February 26, 2026, news article in The Michigan Daily, “Detroit’s charter school experiment failed its students,” reveals that charter schools have, “blurred lines of accountability, creating a system that perpetuates inequality and weakens democratic oversight.” Privatization is known to exacerbate inequality and weaken transparency and accountability. Such problems have defined the charter school sector nationwide for more than three decades. No real improvements have emerged over the years.
The news article goes on to say that, “Detroit should abandon its dependence on charter schools and shift toward more transparent and publicly accountable institutions.”
Neoliberals introduced charter schools in Michigan in 1994. They created the illusion that these unaccountable contract schools governed by unelected private persons would solve Detroit’s education problems, “but in reality, it [charter schools] has done little to improve education for the vast majority of students. On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, only 4% to 6% of Detroit eighth graders were proficient or above in reading and math.”
Poor academic performance is the norm in thousands of charter schools across the country. Pick any city in America with several or more charter schools, inspect state assessment data, and you will quickly find an unimpressive academic record in most charter schools. The academic record is even more abysmal in cyber charter schools. Still, charter schools are allowed to stay open, despite the official rationale for their existence, and charter school advocates persist in claiming that charter schools are superior to under-funded public schools.
This persistently poor academic record is directly related to the “free market” nature of privately-operated charter schools. Such a failed model ensures winners and losers, further fractures education, and intensifies consumerism and a fend-for-yourself culture. The Michigan Daily confirms that, “These persistently low [academic] numbers coincide with a system that is becoming increasingly defined by competition. The expansion of charter schools creates a fragmented environment where dozens of schools scramble to attract enrollment, market themselves and justify their existence.”
This is what happens when education is treated as a business instead of a social responsibility. Commodification and consumerism diminish the integrity and value of education, while increasing chaos and anarchy. Privatizers do not see education as a basic human right that must be guaranteed to all in practice, they see it as an opportunity, something based on chance.
The Michigan Daily also reminds us that, “In Detroit, a city already defined by stark racial and economic inequalities, treating education like a market will perpetuate existing issues. Students from more privileged backgrounds will continue to thrive while those from disadvantaged backgrounds will fall further behind, widening the gap between different racial and economic groups.” There can be no other outcome when the law of the jungle is imposed on education. The “free market” does not reduce inequality, it intensifies it, leaving many people behind. It is based on the obsolete idea of survival of the “fittest,” not the principle that the right to education must be guaranteed for all. How is this acceptable in 2026?
Ending public funding for privately-operated charter schools, fully funding public schools, and ensuring that people have institutions and mechanisms that strengthen democracy are key ways to improve things in Michigan. Letting private interests who treat kids as commodities run something as important as education is a recipe for disaster at many levels. The public always suffers when more state powers are further seized by narrow private interests.
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