On Tuesday, Bridge published an essay I co-wrote with Ned Staebler, the vice president for economic development at Wayne State University and the president and CEO of TechTown. We hope to inspire an important conversation among those who work in…
We're excited to announce our brand new video interview series, which will explore issues where the coronavirus pandemic helps us see things in a new light. What Now? asks: how should we navigate through this pandemic, and ensure a more…
Michigan Future's core work, since our founding nearly three decades ago, has been laying out how Michigan could once again be a high-prosperity state––a place with a broad middle class––in an economy being transformed by globalization and technology. The bottom…
When Bart Carrigan moved from East Lansing to Minneapolis to manage his Michigan-based employer’s newly opened restaurant, he was struck by the city’s many amenities. “I love the environment, and there are a ton of outdoor activities all year round,”…
Most, if not all, major metropolitan areas have business organizations that promote the economic well being of their regions. But the Itasca Project serving Minnesota’s Twin Cities is different from just about any such organization in the country. This group…
Michigan's two big metros not being selected as finalist for the Amazon's HQ2 should not surprise anyone. Amazon made clear that it wanted—really needed—to locate in a community with high talent concentrations today and tomorrow. Neither metro Detroit nor metro…
In our first-ever policy agenda, Michigan Future Inc. argues that boosting Michigan’s four-year college degree attainment rate holds the most promise as a strategy to increase household income in our state. There is ample evidence of the correlation between a…
At Governor Rick Snyder's recent Higher Education Summit, George L. Mehaffy, Vice President for Academic Leadership and Change for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, offered a dire prediction that made me gasp out loud: Based on the…
Summit charter schools in California and Washington state are often included on the list of charter networks that are getting big urban student achievement gains. A common characteristic of these networks is their commitment that their students will graduate…
We have written frequently (most recently here and here) about Pittsburgh as Exhibit A for how so-called Rust Belt regions can return to prosperity. The basic recipe: make the transition from a factory-driven to a knowledge-driven economy largely by retaining…