Innovation is the Key
A recent David Brooks column in the New York Times lays out an innovation agenda. Its worth reading. Its based on a report from President Obama’s National Economic Council. At the core the strategy is based on a belief that its innovation that will be the driver of future economic prosperity in America. Brooks argues […]
What to do with Failing Schools
Good article in the current issue of Education Next. Its called the Turnaround Fallacy. The author, Andy Smarick, argues that there really is no good evidence across the country that we know how to turn around schools that chronically produced low student achievement. Are there schools that have been turned around: moved from low to […]
The Myth of Michigan Big Government II
Quite frankly I was surprised at the data in my last blog about the big disparity in public sector employment in Michigan this decade compared to the nation. Nationally public sector employment up around six percent, in Michigan down six percent from 2001-08. If Michigan had mirrored the country we would have gained 40,000 jobs,rather […]
The Myth of Big Government Michigan
A common story about Michigan’s economic woes is that we have a big and growing public sector that is discouraging/preventing private sector growth. Think again! In the new work by UM economist George Fulton and Don Grimes is a comparison of government job growth in Michigan compared to the US from 2001-2008. (The statistics are […]
Where Job Growth is Occurring
Included in some new work by my friends, UM economists George Fulton and Don Grimes, is an analysis of job growth in America from 2001-2008. They use the same framework we do by dividing the economy into high education attainment industries (those where thirty percent or more of the employees have a four-year degree or […]
Why Young Talent?
There are many who question why it is that folks like us place such a high priority on retaining and attracting recent college graduates. Why pick one demographic group over the others? Aren’t they all important? No one asked that question for the past century when we paid special attention to high paid factory workers. […]
Transforming High Schools
Nationally there are few high performing, open enrollment, urban high schools. We clearly need a new approach. Michigan Future has been working on the issue for nearly a decade. Here is how we think about what matters in creating high quality high schools. Its at the core of our new accelerator strategy. Its drawn from […]
State Budget Part II
I had a chance a few weeks ago to lay out for the State Board of Education how I would deal with the state’s long term structural budget deficit. Here is the agenda I presented: 1. Restructuring the Michigan tax system so that it produces adequate revenue now and, most importantly, grows with the Michigan […]
A Budget to Grow the Michigan Economy
Balancing the state’s budget in an era of substantial, structural revenue decline is difficult. The bottom line, is getting poorer is hard. You have to give up a lot that we have enjoyed for years. But when you go from eighteenth in per capita income to thirty seventh (and going lower) in eight years, there […]
Duderstadt in Crain’s
Read this! Its Jim Duderstadt”s (the former U of M President) recent interview in Crain’s Detroit Business. Its terrific. As always Jim is direct, no holding back. Boy do we need more of that here! His basic message: the knowledge-based economy is the only path back to economic success in Michigan. We need to give […]