Placemaking agenda: municipal finance
For more than a decade we have argued that the strategy for producing better economic outcomes that Michigan has adopted is not smart. Basically lower taxes and smaller government as the recipe for economic growth. As lower taxes produced less state revenue that meant big cuts in higher education and support for local government. And […]
Detroit schooling chaos
Good article in the Atlantic on Detroit schools entitled Detroit’s Education Catastrophe. Worth reading! The article describes the consequences of an unregulated education marketplace with little or no quality standards. You end up with too many schools chasing too few students. Which leaves all education operators unstable––both public school districts and charters. And that instability […]
Low taxes and low prosperity
More evidence that cutting taxes does not lead to higher prosperity for Michiganders. One can make a strong argument that for at least two decades Michigan’s primarily strategy for raising Michiganders living standards has been to lower taxes. Advocates for that strategy have told us over and over that the place with more and better […]
Two quotes on student loans
An article entitled “More evidence the sky is not falling due to student loan debt” reviews recent research on the question of whether student loans are depressing home ownership. They don’t! The article includes two quotes that summarize well the reality that a college degree––even with student loans––are a terrific investment. In the article, for […]
Education pays 2015
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 2105 are below. Slightly different data from a year and two ago. But same story. Each time I look at the new data the […]
A college degree trumps student loans
Fascinating survey results from Navient and Ipsos entitled Money Under 35. Worth checking out. The findings destroys the conventional wisdom about college graduates being crushed by student debt. Obviously recent college graduates would be better of without needing to pay off loans. But the survey demonstrates that having a college degree–particularly a bachelors degree or […]