21st Century education outcomes
Michigan Future is working on its first ever state policy agenda. The agenda will be designed to identify state policies that can raise living standards of all Michiganders. A big component of the agenda will be improving education attainment. Below is how we are thinking about education policy. Starting with what capacities are we trying […]
California and Kansas updated
The Washington Post in an article entitled The interesting thing that happened when Kansas cut taxes and California hiked them provides an update on the economic fortune of the two states. Its a topic we covered previously in a post entitled California growing, Kansas not so much: A year and a half later, same results. As the […]
Chicago and California
I’m sure some of you are asking “what do Chicago and California have in common?” The answer is conventional wisdom writing them off. As we explored in a series of posts in 2009 California then was widely viewed as in permanent decline. Largely because of a dysfunctional state government and not being business friendly. High […]
Michigan Future Schools lessons learned
There are six big takeaways from our MFS’ work: An unregulated marketplace diminishes quality teaching and learning As we explored previously, the consequence of an unregulated education marketplace with little or no quality standards is too many schools chasing too few students. Which leaves all education operators unstable––both public school districts and charters. And that […]
Michigan Future Schools ending
Our Michigan Future Schools initiative has come to an end. For the past seven years it has been a major component of our work. The initiative was designed to help launch new high schools in the city of Detroit that prepared students to graduate from college, not just high school. It was initiated and funded […]
21st century education
Someone asked me for my ideas on what should the Governor’s new 21st Century Education Commission recommend. And to do it with no more than four recommendations. Difficult assignment. Before getting to the two lists I did, a bit of context. I start with two pillars in thinking about education whether it is just k-12 […]
Talent rich cities winning
A core finding of Michigan Future’s research has been that the most prosperous places are now those with the highest proportion of adults with a four year degree. Because globalization and technology are driving us away from a factory-based to a knowledge-based economy. Knowledge-based services are almost exclusively the only sector of the economy to […]
Wrong track Michigan policy
Two must-read columns. One entitled Distractions turn dysfunction for Snyder, GOP is written by Daniel Howes, Detroit News business columnist. Writing about Michigan’s horrible k-12 student outcomes he writes: It’s embarrassing. It’s also a harsh indictment of the recurring public-policy fights between retrograde union interests, the education establishment and a Republican agenda determined to purge […]
Cities and schools again
Following up on my last post about the importance of quality schools and local governments I thought it worthwhile to rerun a post I wrote nearly two years ago. Its as relevant to Michigan’s future success today as it was then. I wrote: “Included in my standard presentation is this quote from Harvard economist Edward […]
Alarm bell reports
Two new reports should be setting off alarm bells among Michigan’s leaders, both political and business. One comes from Ed Trust Midwest entitled Michigan Achieves! More accurately, it would be Michigan doesn’t achieve. The report details Michigan’s status as a national laggard in student achievement and going in the wrong direction fast. All Michigan students, […]