By Rep. Pam Faris Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, recently proposed a three-point plan to get Michigan moving. Rothwell’s plan applauds Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed budget for fiscal 2014, acknowledging his investments in pre-K education, community colleges and higher education and the rebuilding of our infrastructure. While I agree that […]
Guest column: Make businesses pay their fair share for schools, roads, universities
Posted inTalent & Education
Pursuit of money, learning mix
Do the profit motive and learning mix? In Michigan, the answer, so far, is – yes. Students at Michigan charter schools operated by for-profit companies perform the same or better academically as their peers at charters run by nonprofits, according to a Bridge Magazine analysis. While they perform the same, they don’t always perform well. […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Remedial classes aren’t helping thousands of Michigan college students
More than a third of Michigan students enrolling in state colleges take high school-level courses that may not be doing any good. That’s the conclusion of three separate national studies examining the level and the impact of college remedial classes. Those studies conclude that many of the 23,000 Michigan students taking remedial courses don’t need […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Why is education establishment resisting school reform?
By Peter B. Ruddell/Wiener Associates It’s about the kids, not the district. Despite the Center for Michigan’s recent report and Michigan’s mediocre (but improving) education achievement, the entrenched education establishment is arguing the status quo is good for kids. This time the arguments come high atop the traditional education establishment’s ivory tower – from David […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Education reform is theme of TV forum for Southeast Michigan
On March 6 the Center for Michigan will host a televised townhall meeting in partnership with Detroit Public Television on the future of education in Michigan to discuss the nonprofit think tank’s latest report: “The Public’s Agenda for Public Education: How Michigan citizens want to improve student learning.” “The Center for Michigan has organized this […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* The Mackinac Center created a searchable database of public school superintendent compensation – a potentially useful tool for parents and patrons to compare their local leader to other districts. Of course, the unanswered question in all this is: How much should a superintendent make? * Speaking of databases, the Michigan Municipal League has a new […]
Posted inSuccess
Tom Izzo thinks this guy is great
In 1974, Marc Schupan took a leave from his job as a high school government teacher and coach to sort out his future. He thought about law school. Or maybe college coaching. First, he planned to spend a year helping with his family’s modest Kalamazoo scrap metal operation. But just a few weeks into the […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Nonprofits battle shortage of time, talent
DETROIT — At 31, four years after completing the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Detroit program, Mark Ostach sits on the board of the Neighborhood Service Organization, a sizable nonprofit that offers a wide variety of programs ranging from suicide prevention to early-childhood education to homeless relief. Daniel Robin, also 31, serves on the […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan still using federal dollars to fund mortgage assistance programs
As she struggled to hold onto her home after her hours as a retail clerk were slashed, a 66-year-old Kentwood resident initially lost $1,300 in a scam run by a company that promised to help the woman and her husband avoid foreclosure. Then she found out about a state program that provided her with a […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Snyder needs to tutor legislative Republicans on the realities of math
$52 million (Estimated net fiscal year 2023 cost of expanding Medicaid in Michigan, per the federal Affordable Care Act. The expansion would, by that date, cover more than 600,000 single adults and reduce the ranks of the uninsured in Michigan by two-thirds.) $233 million (Estimated net fiscal year 2023 cost of a Senate-passed bill, long […]