High School Accelerator

Nice editorial in today's Detroit News about a new high school initiative we are about to launch. We have been calling it a metro Detroit high school accelerator. Its mission is to create over the next eight years thirty five new small high quality high schools in Detroit and its inner ring suburbs. The first phase will involve starting eleven…

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dbusiness Article Update

The folks at dbusiness gave me a great opportunity to do a long essay on our prescription for improving the Michigan economy. You can read it here. The article went to print before the new 2008 state data came out on both per capita income and college education attainment. So here are the latest data. The first table is the…

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Detroit’s Offer to Creatives – Space, Food and Time

The revival of Detroit is happening, slowly but surely.  The best indicator is the pulse of the so-called "creative class" that are typically the first to re-enter and re-catalyze an urban area. This weekend, I met up with a friend who is a prototype of the creative class - an artist and musician who organizes underground music events, plays shows…

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The Importance of Four-Year Degrees

A recent comment from Jeffery questioned the value of four-year degrees for all. This is a frequent question I get in my presentations. So I thought it worth doing a blog, rather than just responding to the comment. Since we are interested in how to rebuild a high prosperity Michigan, our focus is on what is most important to the…

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TEDxDetroit – Turning Keynes On His Head

For a moment, set aside the challenging choices and drama unfolding in Lansing.  The most hopeful news in the state today came from Detroit.    No, I am not talking about the first ever global electric vehicle conference - although that too is hopeful news.  I am talking about the diverse mix of curious people with big ideas that met…

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