If you’ve ever worked on a film set, you know that nothing happens by accident — at least in front of the camera. Every prop, from throw pillows on the sofa to the painting hanging on the wall behind the actors, is vetted, to use a word from contemporary politics. To not do so is […]
Nancy Derringer
Nancy Nall Derringer is a former reporter at Bridge
Posted inTalent & Education
Better ideas in 140 characters or less
This week’s inaugural Center for Michigan Twitter chat on education, while it didn’t exactly melt the Internet into a puddle, was a success, enough so that we’re planning another one. Mark your calendars for March 28, noon to 1 p.m., hashtag #edchatmi. We’re sourcing the crowd to air common-sense solutions for boosting parental involvement in […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Get in line, kid. It's a long one.
The University of Michigan released data on the application process for next year’s freshman class, and it is eye-popping: Provost Philip Hanlon told a group of faculty Monday that the school has received 41,600 freshman applications to date, compared to 38,700 at this time last year. U-M received 39,570 applications total for entry to the […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Somewhere, Alaska
John Boehner of Ohio. Mike Castle of Delaware. Jeff Flake and John Shadegg, Arizona. Butch Otter, Idaho. Ron Paul, Texas. Jim Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin. Mac Thornberry, Texas. And C.W. “Bill” Young, Florida. This slender cohort of current and former U.S. representatives, along with nine others who did not vote, can rest easy this campaign season, knowing […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Ancient Chinese secret: No bad publicity
Even the star of Pete Hoekstra’s “Debbie Spend-it-now” campaign now says it was a bad idea, and has apologized, via her Facebook page: “I am deeply sorry for any pain that the character I portrayed brought to my communities,” Chan wrote. “As a recent college grad who has spent time working to improve communities and […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Who are you? What have you done with Mitt?
Writing on his own blog, Bridge contributor Rick Haglund touches on one reason Mitt Romney may be polling so poorly in advance of the Feb. 28 GOP primary: Is Mitt Romney really George Romney’s son? he asks. Hmm. Ignore the obvious family resemblance, Haglund says. Look at what he says: Romney writes (in a Detroit […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Ah, so! Second thoughts for Hoekstra's star?
Before the furor over Pete Hoekstra’s “Debbie Spenditnow” ad dies down — the usual suspects having read their lines and otherwise played the parts they were assigned earlier in the week — take a moment to read this, a briefing on the Chinese-American actress whose role was right out of Central Casting, c. 1932. An […]
Posted inTalent & Education
High school champs tout rigor
In a state where only about three-quarters of public-school students graduate from high school and a dismal 17 percent are considered college-ready by the ACT standard, Midland Academy of Advanced and Creative Studies stands alone. The Midland-based charter school graduated 100 percent of its students in the 2010-11 school year, 50 percent of whom were […]
Posted inTalent & Education
A push and helping hands aid science success
Talk to Ned Milne, science teacher at Woodland School, and it becomes clear how that Traverse City charter school earned its success in teaching the subject. For starters, all science classes are electives. Where students at other schools may be herded into general grade-level classes, at Woodland they choose among ecology, biology, chemistry and earth […]
Posted inTalent & Education
A school with one foot in the old country
Most of the Michigan charter schools you’re reading about in Bridge this week are relative newcomers to the field, with all but one founded in or after the mid-1990s, when charters, or public school academies, were established by the state legislature. The exception is the AGBU Alex & Marie Manoogian School in Southfield, which was […]