Meager funding, lower birth rates and a skeptical public are forcing several Michigan universities to adjust to a world with fewer degree options, larger classes and tighter budgets.
Talent & Education
To prosper, Michigan must be a more educated place. Bridge will explore the challenges in education and identify policies and initiatives that address them.
Posted inTalent & Education
Majority of Michigan public schools started school year short on teachers
A survey of superintendents confirms a teacher shortage forcing schools to turn to less-qualified long-term substitutes.
Posted inTalent & Education
How four Detroit students hope to make it through the first year of college
Detroit graduates must navigate patchy academic preparation, culture shock, and often their own shaken confidence if they are to stay enrolled and on track to earn a degree that is their best chance to jump into the middle class as adults.
Posted inTalent & Education
Dems break with Whitmer, pass small funding increase for Michigan schools
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is left out of negotiations as legislators boost budget for state $15.2 billion. The budget doubles the number of literacy coaches, but critics say the funding isn’t enough to improve test scores.
Posted inTalent & Education
As Detroit schools rebuild, a veteran and aviation academy show a way forward
Backers of Davis Aerospace Technical Academy refused to allow Detroit to shut one of the only high schools in the nation to train aviation mechanics. Their success suggests a disconnect between Detroiters and their schools is beginning to mend.
Posted inTalent & Education
As Michigan schools ban cellphones, reports surface of ‘talking,’ ‘eye contact’
Studies are increasingly drawing links between heavy student cellphone use and anxiety and lower achievement. In one suburban Grand Rapids district, a phone ban may be spawning something else … conversation.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan GOP proposes 0.9% funding boost for colleges and universities
Most universities and community colleges wouldn’t get enough of a funding hike to cover inflation under the latest budget plan in the Michigan Legislature. That’s frustrating for a state already ranked 44th in the nation in per-pupil funding of higher education.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan schools would get 2.4 percent hike in GOP budget plan
Michigan Gov Gretchen Whitmer, who campaigned on the promise to improve Michigan’s struggling public schools, didn’t get as much as she wanted in next year’s state education budget.
Posted inTalent & Education
Is Michigan school spending up or down? Pension problems muddy the answer
The rising cost of unfunded pension liabilities is a drag on Michigan schools, according to a new report.
Posted inTalent & Education
Report: Funding cuts, high tuition spawn a cost crisis at Michigan colleges
A “perfect storm” of falling wages, state disinvestment in higher education and stingy financial aid has made Michigan a tough place for low-income college students to succeed.