What to do with Failing Schools
Good article in the current issue of Education Next. Its called the Turnaround Fallacy. The author, Andy Smarick, argues that there really is no good evidence across the country that we know how to turn around schools that chronically produced low student achievement. Are there schools that have been turned around: moved from low to better student achievement? Yes. But…
The Myth of Michigan Big Government II
Quite frankly I was surprised at the data in my last blog about the big disparity in public sector employment in Michigan this decade compared to the nation. Nationally public sector employment up around six percent, in Michigan down six percent from 2001-08. If Michigan had mirrored the country we would have gained 40,000 jobs,rather than losing 37,000. That means…
The Myth of Big Government Michigan
A common story about Michigan's economic woes is that we have a big and growing public sector that is discouraging/preventing private sector growth. Think again! In the new work by UM economist George Fulton and Don Grimes is a comparison of government job growth in Michigan compared to the US from 2001-2008. (The statistics are for public sector employment at…
Where Job Growth is Occurring
Included in some new work by my friends, UM economists George Fulton and Don Grimes, is an analysis of job growth in America from 2001-2008. They use the same framework we do by dividing the economy into high education attainment industries (those where thirty percent or more of the employees have a four-year degree or more) and low education attainment…
Why Young Talent?
There are many who question why it is that folks like us place such a high priority on retaining and attracting recent college graduates. Why pick one demographic group over the others? Aren't they all important? No one asked that question for the past century when we paid special attention to high paid factory workers. And for more than a…