Autos and Michigan prosperity
For most of the 20th Century Michigan was one of the nation’s most prosperous states. Largely because the auto industry employed hundreds of thousands at high wages. Anchored by blue collar factory workers. Michigan’s prosperity was highly correlated with how well the domestic auto industry––now the Detroit Three––was faring. When the Detroit Three did well, […]
The college completion challenge
A recent article in the Washington Monthly is subtitled “The problem is not college debt, it’s low graduation rates. Fix that, and you fix the economy.” Probably an exaggeration. But correct in both that college completion is important to reversing the decline in American living standards and far more of a challenge than too high […]
Education pays updated
You can find current data here. The Bureau of Labor Statistics each year publishes a chart that details the unemployment rate and median weekly earnings by education attainment for those 25 and older. The data for 2104 are below. New data from a year ago. But same story. Below is what I wrote […]
Liberal arts as an asset
Readers of this blog know that we believe that a broad education is the key to building the skills needed for successful/prosperous forty year careers. Largely because globalization and technology are constantly making obsolete––in unpredictable ways––jobs, occupations and industries. So successful people will be those who are able to constantly adjust to changes in labor […]
Worth watching
Great You Tube video from Richard Reeves of the Brookings Institution entitled: “Is America Dreaming?: Understanding Social Mobility” Highly recommended! Using legos and in less than four minutes he lays out the basic realities that America is moving farther and farther away from being a place of equal opportunity. Where your status at birth doesn’t […]
The community college challenge
I support President Obama’s proposal to make community college tuition free for those students who stay on track academically. Expanding education opportunity and outcomes is an essential component of raising the standard of living of all Americans. That said taking tuition off the table as an obstacle, is not nearly enough to dramatically change the […]
More wrong direction k-12 policy
Insightful Stephen Henderson Detroit Free Press editorial entitled: “Snyder hasn’t earned more leeway over troubled schools”. Henderson is writing specifically about the Governor’s decision to transfer the state school reform office from the Michigan Department of Education––which he doesn’t control––to the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget––which he does control. The case Henderson makes […]
Lower income and fewer jobs with the same unemployment rate
Michigan’s February unemployment rate of 5.9 percent is the lowest it has been in more than a dozen years. Since it was also 5.9 percent in October, 2001. Good news indeed! Unfortunately there the similarity in good economic news ends. Even with the same unemployment rate, Michiganders in 2015 are far behind where they were […]