Review of Michigan Student Opportunity Scholarships: Overview and Fiscal Analysis

An NEPC Review funded by the Great Lakes Center

Key Takeaway: Problematic assumptions undermine analyses of the fiscal impact of neovoucher policies.

EAST LANSING, MI (July 14, 2022) - A recent Mackinac Center report claims that the proposed Michigan Student Opportunity Scholarship (MSOS) neovoucher program has the potential to create fiscal benefits for the state of Michigan and its school districts. Its conclusions were examined in a new review, however, and found faulty.

Christopher Saldaña of the University of Wisconsin-Madison reviewed Michigan Student Opportunity Scholarships: Overview and Fiscal Analysis . He found it to be more misleading than useful, with poorly grounded assumptions and a narrow use of research.

States fund neovoucher programs through tax-credited donations, which sets up a more complicated fiscal analysis that requires more assumptions than a conventional voucher policy. To inform its key assumptions about the factors influencing the fiscal impact of neovoucher policies, the report relies overwhelmingly on problematic reports and approaches produced by think tanks that regularly advocate for school choice.

Because of this, Professor Saldaña concludes, the report paints a misleadingly rosy picture of how the MSOS will impact the state's finances and the finances of its school districts. On closer examination, the assumptions the analysis relies upon are flawed in several ways, rendering the report's results, conclusions, and broad policy recommendations useless for Michigan policymakers.

Legislation creating the MSOS program was passed by the Michigan legislature in 2021 but vetoed by the state's governor. A group called " Let MI Kids Learn " is now attempting to revive it through a petitioning (signature-gathering) process unique to Michigan. With enough signatures, the legislature can again pass the legislation and it would become law without the governor's approval.

Find the review, by Christopher Saldaña, at:

https://www.greatlakescenter.org

Find Michigan Student Opportunity Scholarships: Overview and Fiscal Analysis , written by Ben DeGrow and Martin Lueken and published by the Mackinac Center, at:

https://www.mackinac.org/archives/2022/s2022-05.pdf

NEPC Reviews ( http://thinktankreview.org ) provide the public, policymakers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. NEPC Reviews are made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice: https://www.greatlakescenter.org

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/

About The Great Lakes Center

research for the purpose of informing education policy and to develop research-based resources for use by those who advocate for education reform.

Contact:
Michelle Renée Valladares: (720) 505-1958, michelle.valladares@colorado.edu
Christopher Saldaña: (303) 492-2566, cmsaldana@wisc.edu