Proposed bill would give Michigan the best open enrollment law in the nation

A version of the following public comments were submitted to the Michigan House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Workforce.

My name is Jude Schwalbach, and I am a senior education policy analyst at Reason Foundation. In addition to specializing in school finance policy, our K–12 education policy team is a leader in public school open enrollment policy research, publishing a yearly analysis and rating of each state’s open-enrollment laws: Public Schools Without Boundaries 2025.

Strong open enrollment laws, such as those in Michigan’s House Bill 5310, can benefit students and school districts. They ensure students can attend public schools that are the right fit for their goals and needs, with many using these programs to enroll in A- or B-rated school districts, escape bullying, access Advanced Placement (A.P.) courses and specialized learning models, enjoy smaller class sizes, or shorten their family commutes.

A report from the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office and a 2023 Reason Foundation study both found that the competitive effects of open enrollment also encourage public school districts to improve. In fact, when interviewed for a 2023 EdChoice report, public school district administrators in Arizona, North Carolina, Indiana, and Florida stated that open enrollment encouraged them to innovate by creating new programs and improving existing programs to better attract and retain students.

Research also shows that K–12 open enrollment is widely used and supported. Reason Foundation’s K–12 Open Enrollment by the Numbers: A 2025 study found that 22% of Delaware students and 28% of Colorado students in public schools used open enrollment to transfer to schools that were the right fit for them. Furthermore, according to a 2025 national poll by EdChoice, open enrollment is supported by 74% of parents of schoolchildren across party lines. The survey of parents with school-aged children found that 80% of Republicans, 75% of Democrats, and 73% of independents favor allowing families to attend public schools outside their assigned district’s boundaries. This is part of why bipartisan open enrollment bills were passed and signed into law in Idaho, Montana, West Virginia (2023) and Nevada (2025).

Yet, as explained in this year’s edition of Public Schools Without Boundaries, Michigan’s current open enrollment policies are not serving students and score merely a 35 out of Reason’s 100-point best practices criteria (a “F” letter grade), leaving substantial room for policy improvements across all seven of the key metrics that the study evaluates.

Michigan HB 5310 would significantly strengthen the Public Schools of Choice program, which allows students to transfer to public schools other than their residentially assigned schools. 

In particular, the bill would require all of Michigan’s school districts to participate in the program, accepting transfer applicants so long as the incoming district has space available at the grade level. Moreover, districts would be prohibited from charging fees or tuition to transfer students and no longer be permitted to artificially cap the number of transfers they accept by grade level if seats are available. Districts would also have to allow students to transfer between schools within their district (within-district open enrollment) so long as space permits. Altogether, these changes would give Michigan public school students significantly more options to find the best schools for them. The law would make Michigan the 11^th state to adopt both statewide cross- and within-district open enrollment.

Furthermore, students’ transfer applications would be guaranteed equal consideration without regard to their economic background, abilities, or disabilities, so districts cannot discriminate. Districts would be required to post their available capacity by grade level on their websites, informing parents where seats are open.

Likewise, the Michigan Department of Education would be required to publish an annual report showcasing district-level student transfer data, including the numbers of transfers accepted, applications rejected, actual transfers received, and why applicants were denied. The bill would also require districts to inform rejected applicants in writing of the reasons for their denial and to ensure that those applicants can appeal their denials to the state board of education. Together, these provisions would make the open enrollment process far more accessible and transparent.

Overall, Michigan House Bill 5310 is a strong bill that would allow students to attend the public school that is the right fit—for free—regardless of where they live and would implement excellent transparency provisions at the state and local levels. The bill would improve Michigan’s open enrollment policies by 65 points, boosting the state to a 100 out of 100 possible points on best practices (an “A+”) in Reason Foundation’s open enrollment rankings, making it the best public school transfer law in the nation.

Thank you again for allowing me to submit testimony on this bill. Please do not hesitate to reach out to my colleagues or me with any follow-up questions.

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