When $14 million is worth more than $1.3 billion
Two important recent announcements of auto industry investment in the U.S. One from Toyota that they are investing $1.3 billion dollars in updating their Georgetown Kentucky assembly plant. The other from General Motors that they are investing $14 million in a new research and development facility for its San Francisco-based self-driving technology company. Seems like the Toyota […]
What percentage of your job is “robotizable”?
This week, Marketplace started a great series on the ways that robots and automation are rapidly changing the jobs that are available to humans. This reporting follows on the heels of a McKinsey report that surprised many people with its forecast of what jobs are susceptible to automation. Turns out, robots are going to be […]
Low-wage work and a better measure of economic well-being
The poverty rate is often used to measure economic well-being. When the poverty rate drops (which hasn’t happened in some time), we assume more people are better off, more economically secure. But the income level by which someone is declared either in or out of poverty is a fairly arbitrary number, based on a “basket […]
Innovating to get more college students to degree
I learned a lot about emerging strategies for college degree completion at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges’ National Conference on Trusteeship in Dallas last week. It should come as no surprise that the topic would hold value for me as a member of Wayne State University’s Board of Governors. As my […]
A Michigan economy not working for far too many
The new Michigan Association of United Ways ALICE report (for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed), makes clear that Michigan is facing severe structural economic challenges. In the seventh year of a national economic expansion––and an even stronger rebound from near bankruptcy of the domestic auto industry––too many Michigan households are struggling. Forty percent of Michigan […]
MFS Lessons Learned Part Two: The How
Michigan Future Schools (MFS), a seven-year long initiative of Michigan Future, Inc., to fund and grow high schools in Detroit that are committed to high school graduation (read more here) wound down its work last summer. We’ve spent time this year reflecting on some of the central lessons learned by MFS staff throughout the years […]
MFS Lessons Learned Part One: The What
As many readers know, in 2009 Michigan Future established the Michigan Future Schools (MFS) initiative, a high school accelerator designed to give start-up funding and capacity-building supports to new, small, college-prep high schools in Detroit. That project has now come to a close, but what’s emerged from our work is a set of learnings about […]