Freshman Kyle Thompson was expelled and faced a criminal charge after a confrontation with his science teacher. (Courtesy photo) Kyle Thompson has done his best to move forward from that day last March. A sophomore at a small private Detroit high school, his most recent report card is straight A’s. He is making new friends. […]
Ted Roelofs
Ted Roelofs of Kentwood, has written extensively on healthcare as well as prison and juvenile justice reform. Roelofs spent nearly three decades at the Grand Rapids Press where he covered politics, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rural poverty and mental illness among the homeless. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Reach Ted at ted.roelofs@gmail.com
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One year later, Right to Work results uncertain
Thousands of protesters converged on the state capitol in December 2012 to oppose passage of right-to-work legislation. Photo credit: Anne Savage of the Michigan Democratic Party. The predictions were both dire and dramatic. But one year after Gov. Rick Snyder signed right-to-work legislation, it has yet to prove either the body blow to labor or […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Leaving union proves challenging
Ottawa County kindergarten teacher Miriam Chanski is determined to leave the Michigan Education Association. Photo credit: Mackinac Center for Public Policy. As she completed her first year in the classroom, Ottawa County kindergarten teacher Miriam Chanski decided she could do without a union. She thought passage of right-to-work legislation last December ensured that choice. The […]
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Michigan needs vibrant communities to attract business
Michigan native Kate McEnroe travels the country helping companies decide where to locate new manufacturing plants and offices. Firms typically weigh factors like access to transportation and customers, land and wage costs and the skill level of the labor pool. But one combination can be a deal-killer: high taxes and low quality of life. “If […]
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Small towns, big problems
Kalkaska resident Virginia Thomas: “When we retired, we thought we had health care until we died.” (photo by Ted Roelofs) KALKASKA -Seated at her kitchen table, Virginia Thomas confessed she is less trusting than she used to be. Thomas, 75, worked nearly 30 years for the rural northern Michigan Village of Kalkaska, serving as everything […]
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How retirement debt swallowed our towns
Back in the 1950s, when Detroit’s automobile industry ruled, few gave much thought to the long-term price of fringe benefits like pensions or retiree health care. The post-World War II auto boom was a model of modern manufacturing, creating jobs from Detroit and its suburbs to cities like Flint and Saginaw. Factories hummed around the […]
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Debt-ridden Detroit has close company
A decade of recession hit one region – southeast Michigan – harder than anywhere else. So perhaps it’s no surprise unfunded pension and retiree health-care debt is concentrated there as well, in a long list of cities that extends well beyond Detroit or Flint. Southeast Michigan is responsible for a staggering 86 percent of the […]
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Economy falters, with no easy answers for Saginaw
Saginaw resident Linda Williams is frustrated that the city no longer mows the vacant lot next to her home. (photo by Ted Roelofs) SAGINAW – Standing by the weed-choked vacant lot next to her home, Saginaw resident Linda Williams had a simple question. “Couldn’t they cut it at least one time?” she asked. “I don’t […]
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As Kalamazoo stalled, its neighbor curbed retiree health-care costs
City Manager Maurice Evans: “In hindsight, I would say city officials were looking at long-term expenses.” (photo by Ted Roelofs) KALAMAZOO/PORTAGE – A quick drive through Kalamazoo and its bordering neighbor to the south, Portage, reveals some obvious differences. Others are less so. Kalamazoo, older and more ethnically diverse, has its share of historic downtown […]
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Detroit – coming to a city near you
Grand Rapids resident Cathy Mulder: “If it keeps going that way, we’re going to have less and less.” (photo by Ted Roelofs) As headlines mount for the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, Detroit is now the undisputed punching bag for all that can go wrong in a community. But just how immune […]
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