A version of the following public comment was submitted to the Michigan House Committee on Education and Workforce on February 4, 2026.
House Bill 5310 finishes the work begun more than two decades ago when Michigan lawmakers established the state’s open enrollment program. The bill refines and expands the current law, incorporating much-needed tweaks, modeled after time-tested policies from other states.
Data from 2017 showed that 98% of Michigan school districts participated in the open enrollment program. The proposal would amend the law to require all districts to participate, provided that additional seats are available. Currently, 16 other states, including Wisconsin, Colorado, and Delaware, have adopted a policy similar to this.
Because most Michigan districts already participate in open enrollment, significant fluctuations in student counts are unlikely. Michigan’s own data from the past 16 years supports this hypothesis, showing that student participation rates increase by about 4% each year statewide. This is because open enrollment programs tend to scale up incrementally over time.
For example, when Wisconsin expanded its program in 2005, open enrollment participation increased by 81 students compared with the previous school year. In the intervening 21 years, program participation increased by approximately 6% annually. As of the 2024-25 school year, 8% of Wisconsin public school students used open enrollment.
The bill would also require the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to collect and publish important open enrollment data, including the number of denied applicants and the reasons for denial. This would build on MDE’s existing data collection, which already publishes the number of open enrollment participants by district, improving transparency at the state-level.
Wisconsin has published reports, like those described in HB 5310, for nearly three decades. During this time, these reports have informed policymakers, district officials, families, and taxpayers about the effect of open enrollment on students and districts. These reports aren’t unique to Wisconsin; Nevada and Kansas also ensure that open enrollment data is readily available to the public.
HB 5310 would also standardize the existing open enrollment process, making it more transparent and family-friendly. For example, districts would be required to post their available capacity by grade level and all open enrollment policies and procedures on their websites. This ensures that families can easily learn when, where, and how to apply for transfers.
Notably, a 2025 report by the Colorado Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights urged policymakers to adopt district-level transparency provisions like these. As of 2025, 14 states, including Colorado, Nevada, and Delaware, hold districts, fully or in part, to these family-friendly standards.
HB 5310 would also increase transparency related to denied applicants. Not only would denials be issued in writing, but rejected applicants could appeal them to a non-district entity. This process ensures that denied transfer applicants get a fair hearing. States like California, Arkansas, Nebraska, and West Virginia require districts to maintain this level of transparency.
Overall, this bill would strengthen Michigan’s public education system, making public schools more transparent and open to all students, so long as capacity is available. A 2023 research paper published by the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute of Economics found that the lowest performing schools improved the most in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s open enrollment program. Similarly, California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office reported in 2016 and 2021 that the state’s open enrollment program strengthened public schools and helped retain students.
At the same time, California students participating in these programs could escape bullying, access college-level courses, and specialized learning models. Other states also report that students use open enrollment to access smaller class sizes or shorten commutes. Additionally, the Becker Friedman Institute’s report found that participation increased student achievement and college enrollment, compared to non-participants.
Overall, HB 5310 is a strong bill that refines Michigan’s open enrollment program and would implement excellent transparency provisions at the state and local levels. In doing so, it would improve Michigan’s open enrollment policies by 65 points on Reason Foundation’s annual report, Public Schools without Boundaries, boosting the state to a 100 out of 100 possible points on best practices (an “A+”), making it the best public school transfer law in the nation.