"There is very, very, very little downside risk and a world of upside opportunity and potential," in letting someone else run public schools that don't produce knowledgeable students, he said.
His comments came in a roundtable discussion with reporters that followed Tuesday's State of the State address.
In that speech, Engler said he wants the state to be able to intervene in school districts where more than 80 percent of the students fail the state proficiency test or the dropout rate is higher than 25 percent.
Not everyone thinks that's a good idea. State Rep. Lynne Martinez, (D-Lansing) said yesterday that Engler's record on running schools is mediocre.
"In the two years that this governor has been tinkering with education policy, the MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) scores are down," she said. "I'm very skeptical of his influence."
Figures obtained yesterday from the Michigan Department of Education show that could affect a large number of students.
As many as 132 school districts - including major urban districts such as Detroit, Lansing and Benton Harbor - had fewer than 20 percent of their students with passing scores in at least one of the categories of the test.
That represents 23.6 percent of all districts in the state and 28 percent of Michigan students.
Engler said he already has in mind the kind of person he would like to see lead troubled school districts.
"You want to think about leaders, innovators, risk-takers, and people who are fiercely independent who can cut through some of the political morass that seems to surround so many of these institutions," he said.
He spoke flatteringly of Deborah McGriff, a former Detroit Public Schools superintendent who now works with the Edison Project, which runs charter schools in Lansing and Mount Clemens and 10 more in other states.
Asked if he thinks non-performing districts should be turned over to private groups such as the Edison Project, Engler said he hadn't really gotten to that point.
But he didn't rule it out. "Could it (get to that point)?" he asked. "To me, ... (the answer is), do whatever it takes."
The Edison Project already plans to open the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences to 700 students next fall. The independent public school got its charter last month from Central Michigan University.
McGriff, the company's senior vice president, said the Edison Project would like to open several schools in Detroit.
It also is making inroads in Flint, where the Flint Board of Education voted last month to charter two Edison schools for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, although Flint teachers have since said that the number should be limited to one.
The Lansing school board also is holding talks with Edison about opening a school.
Martinez expressed reservations about letting charter school companies take over entire school districts. She noted that, so far, "in Lansing, the charter schools have lower MEAP scores than the public schools do."
But despite such doubts and open opposition from Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, Engler said he expects that any new state-appointed leadership would lead to improvements in low-performing public schools.
"It is inconceivable that we couldn't double, triple or quadruple, in a year or two, the number of students who are performing at a proficient level (in Detroit)," he said. "It can be done if it's made to be an effort, if that's a cause."
Engler said he didn't necessarily see a point at which school districts taken over by the state would revert to being controlled solely by local school boards and administrators.
"In one sense, state intervention would end the failed system, devise the new system and that going forward would be the system," he said.
"You would not ever go back to the failed system. That would be illogical."