The first post I wrote for this blog was 13 years ago. It was entitled the Need For a New Michigan and made the case that what made us prosperous in the past, won't in the future. That if we…
A new Pew Research Center analysis calculates the proportion of lower income, middle income and upper income households in 1971 and 2021. The headline of the analysis is the shrinking of the American middle class over the last half century.…
We are honored to have the opportunity to publish this column by Anthony P. Carnevale, the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The economy is changing, but will Michigan change with it? The United States…
Important new metro Detroit educational attainment report from the Detroit Regional Chamber entitled 2022 State of Talent. Worth checking out. The report portrays a region that continues to be a laggard in post-secondary attainment. And the negative impact that has…
Recently Intel announced they are going to invest an initial $20 billion in a new chip fabrication plant in metro Columbus Ohio. Initial because Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger indicated that Columbus could become "the largest semiconductor manufacturing location on the…
The 21st Century path to prosperity––to a broad middle class––is concentrating talent. Not factory jobs. Why? Because today's mass middle class are professionals and managers who work in offices, schools and hospitals. Not production workers who work in factories. You…
A year ago Rivian, often described as the Tesla of trucks, announced that they were moving their headquarters from suburban Detroit to Irvine California. The announcement received hardly any Michigan press coverage. And, even more concerning, no reaction from Michigan's…
Success in today’s and tomorrow’s economy is largely dependent on having a set of skills that are critical in today’s workplace. At Michigan Future, we’ve been using a framework articulated by learning scientists Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff for these…
At Michigan Future, there is a core assumption that underlies our approach to changing our state for the better, and today I want to reflect on how this assumption is relevant to our work in education. That assumption is the…
After a number of years, I’m preparing to step away from my work at Michigan Future at the end of this month. I am offering a series of reflections on education in Michigan from my years of work understanding what…