By Christopher Klaver
CIO
Posted: April 6, 2016 4:41 PM

Rep. Charles Brunner aired his frustration Tuesday that the Department of Education had approved the deficit elimination plan for a charter school in his district, but the Michigan Association of Public School Academies said Wednesday that Mr. Brunner went too far in his protestations and owed at least the staff at the school an apology.

The school at issue is Bay City Academy, which is running a $1.3 million deficit. The school was founded by Steven Ingersoll, who has been convicted of tax evasion related to his operation of that school and Grand Traverse Academy near Traverse City.

The department has approved a plan for the Bay City school to eliminate its deficit over the next five years.

But Mr. Brunner (D-Bay City) argued in a release that the school should simply have been closed, or at least needed to ensure it cut all ties with Mr. Ingersoll and anyone who had supported him.

“The Bay City Academy has objectively failed both academically and financially in recent years,” Mr. Brunner said. “Nothing in the deficit elimination plan offered by the Bay City Academy has given me faith that the academy is serious about educating the students attending their sorry excuse for a school.”

He argued the approval of the plan was evidence of the need for a package by House Democrats to create more oversight of charters.

“It is unconscionable that the individuals who have so assiduously shirked responsibility for their past performance have continued to be involved in the operation of the academy and even in some cases promoted. I will not stop advocating for the children of Bay County and will not rest until every student has access to a financially stable and academically enriching school environment,” he said. “I am calling on my colleagues in the House and Senate to pass sensible reforms to our charter school laws to hold schools like the Bay City Academy accountable, Lake Superior State to take responsibility for the academic performance of the school it permits to operate under its auspices, and the Department of Treasury and the Attorney General to do their jobs and ensure that Michigan taxpayers are not having their hard-earned dollars be abused and misused by a corrupt school board.”

But Dan Quisenberry, MAPSA president, said Mr. Brunner went too far in addressing the school’s issues and its ties to Mr. Ingersoll.

“In an obvious effort to score political points with his backers, Rep. Charles Brunner issued an outrageous and totally ill-informed attack on Bay City Academy and Michigan’s entire charter school community,” Mr. Quisenberry said. “For him to call Bay City Academy a ‘sorry excuse for a school’ is beyond the pale. It’s untrue and beyond offensive, and he owes an apology to every student, parent and staff member at that school. Rep. Brunner should be ashamed of himself.”

Mr. Quisenberry then defended the state’s charter school structure.

“Rep. Brunner has no idea what he’s talking about,” Quisenberry said in response to Mr. Brunner’s assertion about ”the outrageously lax charter school laws in this state”. “Michigan is, in fact, a national model of how charter school accountability and oversight are supposed to work, and the Bay City Academy situation is the textbook example of that. The problems were dealt with quickly because the right oversight was in place. Contrast that with other recent news stories of alleged criminal misdeeds that have happened in traditional public schools in Michigan.”