Becoming a teacher in Michigan just became a lot more difficult. Only one in four aspiring teachers passed a beefed-up version of Michigan’s teacher certification test – an exam that teachers must pass to be hired to lead a classroom – when the new test was administered for the first time last month. The initial […]
One in four aspiring teachers pass new teacher test
Posted inBrunch with Bridge
Root for the Pack above the Mack? Heretic!
DIVIDED LOYALTIES: Live in Michigan, but root for Green Bay? You must be a Yooper. (Photo by Flickr user Mike Morbeck; used under Creative Commons license) If you live in the Upper Peninsula and fly a booger-green and pus-yellow flag from your house, please realize you are grossing us out. And you should move. Back […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
A steady job, with fewer perks
Tim Bradshaw knew he was entering a working world much different from that of his parents when he accepted a job more than 2 years ago with the City of Kentwood. Unlike many of his older coworkers, he would not earn credit toward a guaranteed monthly retirement check, and “my wife and I just assume […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
You’re the Mayor
Tell us how cities can reduce worker retirement costs So you’ve read Bridge’s fairly terrifying report about how Michigan cities and towns have failed to fund employees’ pension and health-care plans, sometimes ignoring the problem for decades. The result: billions of dollars in unfunded retirement obligations across the state. Add to that crumbling infrastructure, dwindling […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Two cities that took control of retiree costs
They are the exceptions, but leaders in a handful of Michigan cities and towns foresaw the financial crisis that would overwhelm their communities if they didn’t begin setting aside enough money to pay the pensions and health insurance they promised workers when they retired. “It took about 10 years to figure this out,” said Eric […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Oakland County proposes legacy solution
Not long after Robert Daddow came to work for Oakland County 20 years ago, a couple of elected officials suggested the county should stop setting aside money for its retirees’ health insurance. No law required Michigan’s local governments to prefund the health care plans promised to retirees, so why pay for something now that you […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
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 […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
What’s for dinner? Families on food stamps may say ‘nothing’
Michael J. Brennan is president and CEO of United Way for Southeastern Michigan Michiganders are feeling the sting of a slow economic recovery — especially throughout Greater Detroit — and the lingering effects of the Great Recession are hitting families each night around the dinner table. As unemployment in Michigan continues to eclipse the majority […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
In downsized Flint, desperate retirees vs. struggling taxpayers
It is unfair to expect Flint’s current residents to bear the full brunt of the city’s legacy costs, which were incurred when the city’s population was twice its current level, Mayor Dayne Walling said. When Patty Tokar’s husband, Steve, retired from Flint’s sewer department in 1996, the couple figured they wouldn’t collect a large pension, […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
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 […]