Curtain Goes Up on Proposal To Overhaul Michigan Schools

By Lonnie Harp

Gov. John Engler of Michigan last week proposed a radical solution to the state's self-imposed school-funding crisis under which the state would provide grants to students to use to attend any public school.

Mr. Engler described his student-centered funding plan as a long-overdue answer to a "monopoly'' system that had been carelessly managed by public education administrators. He also proposed a "charter school'' plan to expand the options available to parents.

"Parents and children deserve a more flexible system, a system with schools that respond more to the educational needs of the family than to the bottom line of the system,'' the Governor said in a speech to a joint...