This means that Michigan, public schools could come under even more pressure to prove they are performing. The Second Annual Record-Eagle Report Card provides some of the information parents and students need to help make that determination. Graduation rates along with enrollment, free and reduced lunch, pupil-teacher ratios, per student funding and state standardized test results are listed for each public school district in northwestern Michigan. For the first time, the report card also includes information about private schools, although less data is available because private schools don't have to follow the same testing and reporting standards as public schools. The vouchers would help parents subsidize, or sometimes cover, the cost of private education.
Vouchers are just one more source of possible competition for public school funding.
If the voucher issue does go on the ballot and wins voter support, it would be next year's graduation rates that would determine where vouchers would be automatically available. Of the 11 that saw a change, all but three decreased their class size. Three got to bigger classrooms, Excelsior No. 1 to 20.5 students per teacher, Mackinac Island to 11.7 student and Mackinaw City to 15.3 students per teacher on average. Alba also showed the greatest percentage loss of students from 1998 to 1999. The Traverse City Record-Eagle.