SB 944 — Summary (Revised School Code: public school academies & management agreements)
Status / Context
- Bill: SB 944 (amends MCL 380.503c et seq.)
- Subject: Education — public school academies (charter schools) and requirements for management agreements with educational management organizations (EMOs)
- Status (as provided): Referred to Committee on Government Operations. Introduced: January 27, 2025.
- Applies to: management agreements entered into or renewed after the bill’s effective date; boards must publish materials within 30 days of receipt.
Purpose
- Increase financial transparency and public disclosure for charter schools that contract with private educational management organizations (EMOs). The bill extends and strengthens existing disclosure requirements that apply to some charter types and requires additional, specific financial reporting from EMOs.
Key provisions / changes
- Scope expanded: current disclosure rules that applied to public school academies (PSAs), schools of excellence, and urban high school academies are explicitly applied to strict discipline academies as well.
- Management agreements (new or renewed after the bill’s effective date) must include EMO obligations to provide, at least annually, to the charter school’s board:
- The same financial and operational information a school district must disclose under MCL 388.1618(2) for the most recent fiscal year.
- Audited financial statements for the EMO covering the immediately preceding fiscal year that disclose the EMO’s specific expenditures of funds received under the management agreement. (Some substitute versions require accounting for expenditures made under subcontracts and for funds retained as EMO compensation.)
- For each EMO employee, officer, or board member who (a) is involved in the charter school’s day‑to‑day operations and staffing (including leadership and teachers) and (b) receives compensation exceeding $100,000/year — a list describing each fringe benefit included in that person’s compensation package and the cost of each benefit.
- Public posting: within 30 days of receipt the charter school board must make all required information (and, in some versions, the management agreement itself) available via a link on the school’s website homepage, in a form/manner prescribed by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).
- Definitions and mechanics: the bill defines “educational management organization,” “management agreement,” and “school fiscal year,” and ties the disclosure obligations directly into charter-management contracts going forward.
Who is affected
- Directly affected: EMOs that operate or manage Michigan charter schools; boards of charter schools (PSAs, schools of excellence, urban high school academies, strict discipline academies); authorizing bodies.
- Indirectly affected: MDE (for prescribing forms and hosting guidance or databases), local authorizers, charter school staff and contractors, and the public/taxpayers (increased access to financial information).
Procedural / timeline aspects
- Applicability: requirements apply to management agreements entered into or renewed after the bill becomes effective. Several bill drafts indicate the board must post disclosures within 30 days of receipt.
- Effective date: substitute/committee documents indicate implementation tied to the bill’s effective date and to future management agreements; some committee language in related materials notes a 90‑day post‑enactment effective period for companion measures. (Exact effective date will be set by the enacted bill language.)
- Fiscal impact: analyses in committee reports note increased administrative costs for MDE to collect/publish the data and a minor administrative burden on charter schools; MDE has previously budgeted funds for a charter transparency database.
Related measures / context
- SB 943 (companion) and SB 946 (tie‑bar in some committee actions) address related district posting requirements and authorizer oversight; together the bills form a package aimed at increasing transparency and oversight of EMO‑managed charter schools.
Bottom line
SB 944 requires EMOs to provide audited fiscal statements and detailed compensation/fringe‑benefit disclosures to charter school boards and mandates timely public posting of that information, expanding transparency requirements to additional charter types and to future management agreements.
