Autonomous vehicles and 3D printed cars too?
Its clear that autonomous vehicles are coming. Its a question of when, not if. And that means radical change in the industry that drives Michigan’s economy; in how we live our lives; and how our communities are structured. For an insightful and fascinating take on how this will all play out check out The Third […]
Candidates can’t deliver more manufacturing jobs
Terrific New York Times magazine article entitled Why Are Politicians So Obsessed With Manufacturing? It details the reality that no matter what candidates from both parties promise manufacturing jobs are not coming back. (Edward McClelland explores this topic specifically about Michigan in a recent New York Times op ed. He cites our “The New Path to Prosperity: Lessons […]
More and more American men not working
Important column from former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers in the Washington Post entitled A disaster is looming for American men. Worth reading! Summers writes: Job destruction caused by technology is not a futuristic concern. It is something we have been living with for two generations. A simple linear trend suggests that by mid-century about a quarter […]
Standardized tests and teacher evaluation
We have explored previously how an over reliance on standardized tests is contributing to students leaving high school neither college or career ready. To make matters worse we now are putting in place a teacher evaluation system that also over relies on standardized tests. As I wrote in my last post we need to give […]
Holding management accountable for school results
One of the main lessons we learned from our Michigan Future Schools initiative is, contrary to conventional wisdom, the core characteristic of pre K-12 schools nationally that are getting breakthrough gains in student achievement is the commitment and capability of the management of schools (the central office of both charter school networks and traditional public […]
Finally rising household incomes
2015 turns out to be the year that a growing economy finally delivered rising incomes for low and middle income Americans and Michiganders. Median household income nationally rose 5.2 percent. In Michigan 2.4 percent. Michigan’s median household income in 2015 was $51,084 compared to $56,517 for the nation. The poverty rate fell nationally from 14.8 to […]
Successful cities aren’t like the suburbs
Insightful L.A. Times op ed by Mark Vallianatos and Mott Smith entitled L.A. isn’t a suburb. We need to stop planning it like one. The three core characteristics of vibrant central cities are walkable, high density and mixed use. The core characteristics of suburbs are the exact opposite. They were designed for driving, low density and single use neighborhoods. […]
Developing our first state policy agenda
UPDATE: We released our report: A Path to Good-paying Careers for all Michiganders: A 21st Century state policy agenda Click here to read it: https://www.michiganfuture.org/report-path-good-paying-careers-michiganders-21st-century-state-policy-agenda/ As we began development of Michigan Future’s first ever state policy agenda, we started by asking ourselves “what outcome do we want to achieve?” Our answer is a rising standard of […]
Michigan Future introduces new bloggers
The entire Michigan Future staff is going to start sharing this blog with me. The plan is to have a new blog Tuesday through Friday. Joining me in blogging will be our policy associates: Patrick Cooney, Sarah Szurpicki and Kim Trent. We will be writing about our new state policy agenda project: Raising Michiganders Living […]
Taxes and economic growth
Two recent New Times columns make the case that lower taxes are not the magic elixir that automatically leads to economic success. Both worth reading. Bruce Bartlett, one of the authors of the Reagan tax cuts, in a critique of Donald Trump’s tax cut proposal provides an insightful overview of tax cuts effects on the […]