John Austin and Casandra Ulbrich/courtesy photo The State Board of Education is responsible for ensuring that Michigan’s public schools are providing a high-quality education for the state’s youth. Part of that responsibility includes advocating for sufficient and stable funding. A recent analysis conducted by researchers at Michigan State University’s Education Policy Center, on behalf […]
Guest Commentary
At Bridge, we believe in listening to voices from all over our state. Got something to say? Contact us and join the conversation (details below)
How to submit a Guest Commentary
What to know:
Bridge welcomes a diversity of voices and perspectives from readers on issues important to Michigan. Guest commentaries reflect the views of the author(s), and are independent of the nonpartisan, fact-driven reporting of Bridge’s newsroom staff.
Commentaries must be the author’s original work and preferably will not have appeared first in other publications. Bridge reserves the right to decline submissions at our discretion.
We reserve the right to edit commentary for grammar, clarity, brevity or to address legal or factual concerns. We may offer editing suggestions, but in the service of making your work more accessible, not to alter your views.
We do not pay for guest commentary.
Here are some guidelines:
- Columns are usually 500-700 words
- They generally focus on a Michigan topic or policy and should avoid ad hominem attacks
- The more direct, distinct and/or intimate your perspective, the more effective your column will be
- The best columns do more than identify problems; they also offer solutions and facts to back them up
- Please include a one- or two-sentence bio, including the writer’s organization or relevant background.
- Authors must show their work, by backing up facts with links to reports or studies
- Bridge does not publish self-promotional columns or candidate endorsements
- Send a good quality, large headshot of the writer(s) as an attachment
- We also ask that, in return for publishing a guest commentary, the author(s) and their organizations generously promote the link to the published column through your Facebook, Twitter and other social or professional networks.
That’s about it. Keep the writing clear, conversational and free of jargon, and sell our smart and receptive readership on the argument you are trying to make.
Who to contact:
Email your submission or idea to guestcommentary@bridgemi.com. Please briefly describe who you are and what you would like to say and put the words “guest commentary” in the email subject line.
Posted inGuest Commentary
Redistricting reform is key to fixing our “jerry-rigged” government
Jocelyn Benson and Joe Schwarz (courtesy photo) Washington is broken. Those three words may have become the most common description of the sad state of affairs in our nation’s capital. But they don’t begin to capture the frustration, anger and disgust that Americans feel when they watch our Congress careen from one manufactured crisis […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
A crucial ingredient as one young Michigan resident signed up for Obamacare
Marianne Udow-Phillips is the director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation, a nonpartisan health policy center based at the University of Michigan with a mission to promote evidence-based care delivery, improve population health and expand access to care. Like everyone I know who is a health policy junkie, I have been very excited […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
How can students get ready for college if their counselors aren’t college ready?
Patrick O’Connor This fall’s crop of education articles brings us a bumper crop of stories about college. In addition to the usual bounty of college rankings, this harvest is rich with stories about the value of college, predictions of the stress of applying to college, and answers to the perennial question, is college for everyone? […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Diversity loses in some areas, holds steady in others
Thomas Costello is president & CEO of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion. (Courtesy photo) As the U.S. Supreme Court continues to wrestle with the issue of affirmative action in Michigan and around the nation, it’s time to take a look at what the end of the practice in public and university decision-making has […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Don’t leave teacher training, support to chance
Amber Arellano is the executive director of The Education Trust-Midwest Last week I had the pleasure of catching up with dear old friends during a trip up north. As their daughters geared up to return to school, my friend Marsha shared an observation about why her daughter’s public school does such a fine job. “The […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
The importance of federally qualified health centers and the Affordable Care Act
Marianne Udow-Phillips is the director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation, a nonpartisan health policy center based at the University of Michigan with a mission to promote evidence-based care delivery, improve population health and expand access to care. About six months after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, our Center […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Some schools sell themselves in silly, superficial ways
Margaret Trimer-Hartley Back to school shopping in Michigan takes on a whole new meaning in this era of free market school choice. Parents are still scouting deals on pens, pencils and backpacks, but now schools are also on the prowl for students. The gimmicks they’re using borrow the best—and the worst— from retail. In the […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Northern Michigan residents “ho hum” over Detroit’s bankruptcy.
Ask just about any northern Michigander about Detroit’s bankruptcy and they’ll tell you much the same—should have happened 20 years ago. After moving here some 41 years ago from Lansing myself and eventually becoming the editor and publisher of the Petoskey News-Review, I have found the attitude towards Detroit hasn’t changed much. Probably the strongest […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Don’t mess with the Great Lakes
In a surprising development, in late July a Congressional committee acted like, well, thoughtful, rational legislators. Why? Six words: Don’t mess with the Great Lakes. Here’s the story. First came behavior we’ve come to expect from the U.S. House of Represenatives. An appropriations subcommittee — which has primary responsibility for determining Great Lakes funding levels […]