* Michigan is no. 11 in this chart of 38 states that have “slashed” higher funding in recent years. “Cash-poor state legislatures have gone to town on their higher education budgets, and as they’ve hacked away, tuition has risen along with the sums undergraduates have had to borrow. In total, 38 states cut post-secondary funding since […]
Derek Melot
Derek Melot is a former assistant editorial page editor, columnist and reporter at the Lansing State Journal, where he covered state and local issues extensively, earning awards from the Associated Press and Michigan Press Association. The Oklahoma native moved to Michigan in 1999, and served as Bridge editor through mid-2013.
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* The emerald ash borer has devastated the ash forest in Michigan. And the bug may be felling Michigan’s human residents, too: “Something else, less readily apparent, may have happened as well. When the U.S. Forest Service looked at mortality rates in counties affected by the emerald ash borer, they found increased mortality rates. Specifically, more […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* The expiration of the payroll tax cut did not get nearly enough attention during all the “fiscal cliff” coverage out of D.C. (Could it be that the Beltway TV types live in an econ bracket where payroll taxes are an inconsequential thing?) Well, as reported by Lester Graham over at Michigan Radio, the payroll tax […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Report details surge in child poverty in Detroit
The majority of children in Detroit now live in poverty, says a new report from the demographic firm Data Driven Detroit. The child poverty rate was 57.3 percent in 2011, D3 found in “2012 State of the Detroit Child”, after a decade of huge increases in economic struggles for children in Michigan’s largest city. “The […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links K-12 edition
The Center for Michigan’s new report on public attitudes on school reform drew widespread coverage from Michigan’s media this week. * mlive.com: “A majority of Michigan residents give the state’s public K-12 schools a grade of “C” or lower, and they see the best ways to fix the system as expanding access to preschool and improving […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Survey says: CFM report details public education agenda
Observing the course of education reform in Michigan – and the mounting information that many of Michigan’s children were not being properly prepared for a 21st century world, leaders at the Center for Michigan, a nonprofit, nonpartisan “think-and-do tank” in Ann Arbor struck on a simple idea: Find out what the public – the actual […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Survey says: CFM report details public education agenda
Observing the course of education reform in Michigan – and the mounting information that many of Michigan’s children were not being properly prepared for a 21st century world, leaders at the Center for Michigan, a nonprofit, nonpartisan “think-and-do tank” in Ann Arbor struck on a simple idea: Find out what the public – the actual […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* Michigan charter schools get praise from Stanford University: “A new report released today by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found that the typical student in a Michigan charter school gains more learning in a year than his or her district school peer, amounting to about an additional two months of learning […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* Indiana is looking at a $500 million budget surplus. Iowa is looking at $800 million. Michigan’s Senate Fiscal Agency estimates that the state will carry about $500 million in its budget stabilization, or “rainy day,” fund into the 2013-14 fiscal year. Something to keep in mind as legislators begin budget negotiations in a couple […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Bolger backs bigger dollars for early childhood
House Speaker Jase Bolger, freshly elected to a second term to head Michigan’s House of Representatives, added his voice Wednesday to a growing coalition of political leaders in favor of increased state spending on early childhood education. “We should expand early childhood education opportunities as investments to help kids succeed. Those investments also will provide […]