Sixty percent with credentials
Sixty percent is becoming the standard estimate of the proportion of working age adults who need a post secondary credential to meet the skill needs of the state and national economy. These credentials include four years degrees and more, two year degrees and occupational certificates from post secondary institutions. Currently Michigan post secondary credential rate […]
Integration and increasing mobility
Income mobility in American is declining. Increasingly what your parents earn predicts what you will earn. Certainly not consistent with the core American value of equal opportunity. As President Obama said in his second Inaugural Address: “We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the […]
Soft bigotry of low expectations
Our Michigan Future Schools initiative is designed to create, at scale, open enrollment high schools in Detroit that graduate students college ready who ultimately earn college degrees. We provided funding to help start eleven new high schools. Continue to work with eight of them plus one more. Eight charter schools and one DPS. Nearly everyone […]
Minnesota #1
CNBC ranked Minnesota the best state to do business in. Pretty surprising. Good economy? Yes. Good place to do business? Conventional wisdom is no. We have long used Minnesota as our model state. Because it has the best economic outcomes in the Great Lakes and one of the best in the country. Both high per […]
Paul Ryan and the earned income tax credit
Michigan policymakers seem hell bent to eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). They already have reduced the credit from 20 to six percent to help pay for Governor Snyder’s big business tax cut. A huge tax increase on the working poor. Now the State House and Senate has voted to eliminate it entirely to […]
Place and young professionals
A recent DBusiness article, entitled “Report: Metro Detroit ranks low in attracting, keeping young graduates”, cites two reports that came to that conclusion. The one I want to focus on in this post comes from the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER). Metro Detroit ranked 48th out of 51 regions with populations of one million or […]
Downtowns and economic development
In two recent Atlantic articles James Fallows writes about the renaissance in central city downtowns occurring across America and around the world. (You can find the articles here and here.) He concludes that vibrant downtowns are an essential ingredient in city success: He writes: “Yes, you can find exceptions. But most of the time, when […]
Explaining persistent low education attainment
Insightful blog by Marc Tucker CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy. Tucker’s topic is why America for decades has failed to reverse its standing as an international laggard in student achievement. Its not that that reality is unknown or that business, political, and media leadership hasn’t identified it as an important […]
Michigan’s 99 percent
We all know the basic story. A very high percentage of personal income growth is going to the top one percent. Which leaves little for the rest of us to enjoy a rising standard of living. The result is a decoupling between a growing economy and most American doing better economically. In many ways this […]
Detroit Regional Chamber on transportation
For decades the Detroit Regional Chamber has be a leader on the importance of transit to the success of the region and state. Way ahead of the rest of the business community both in the region and across the state. They have just released their principals for how state policy makers should deal with transportation […]