Liberal arts lead to good-paying careers
George Anders new book, You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a “Useless” Liberal Arts Education, is worth reading. The book tells the story of how liberal arts majors––no matter what the conventional wisdom––are putting together successful forty-year careers. Anders mainly explores the path of well-paid, highly-successful liberal arts majors most working for technology-based […]
Not all kids are being pushed to get a four-year degree
Conventional wisdom is that one of the main culprits in the so-called skill shortage is that all Michigan kids are being pushed to get a four-year degree. I am quite skeptical that that is accurate. (See this New York Times article about college counseling at a Topeka, Kansas high school for what is a far […]
Employers can fix labor shortages
Terrific Dustin Walsh column in Crain’s Detroit Business entitled Businesses have key to labor shortage — higher wages. This is a position we have laid out many times before (see here) that markets solve supply and demand imbalances through price. In the case of labor markets price is wages and benefits. If there is more demand than […]
Schools moving away from standardized tests and online learning
Summit charter schools in California and Washington state are often included on the list of charter networks that are getting big urban student achievement gains. A common characteristic of these networks is their commitment that their students will graduate from college. Another increasingly common characteristic is because they are committed to college success––not just […]
Low unemployment doesn’t mean a prosperous Michigan
The most important recommendation in our new state policy agenda is that we change the mission of state economic policy to a rising household income for all. A Michigan with a broad middle class where wages and benefits allows one to pay the bills, save for retirement and the kids’ education and pass on […]
Student loans and home ownership
The story that taking out student loans is a path to pauperdom rather than prosperity dominates the public conversation. One problem: its wrong. As we have covered repeatedly (see here and here) getting a four-year degree, even with student loans, is the best investment one can make. One part of the story about the negative […]
Why Pittsburgh is booming
We have written frequently (most recently here and here) about Pittsburgh as Exhibit A for how so-called Rust Belt regions can return to prosperity. The basic recipe: make the transition from a factory-driven to a knowledge-driven economy largely by retaining and attracting talent. The New York Times––in the Fashion and Style section of all places––provides […]
A decade of change in employment by occupation group
The table below displays changes in employment nationally by the minimum education requirement for occupations as calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor. Its the same database we wrote about in our exploration of the reality of good-paying jobs that do not require a four-year degree. What stands out are the first column and the […]
Accelerating an American caste system
Readers of our latest report know that we very much agree with Robert Putnam’s framing, in his book Our Kids, of the basic economic division in American now being class, where class is increasingly defined by college attainment. That top quartile families––most with at least one adult with a four-year degree or more––are doing well economically. […]
Inferior education for others’ kids
Governor Snyder and State Superintendent Whiston recently announced a major initiative to emphasize occupational training in high school. At the same time the New York Times published an article on the efforts by technology industry billionaires to make coding a foundation skill required for all K-12 students. Both are part of a broader effort by […]