Spend more than $500,000 on lobbying and write nearly $1.2 million in PAC checks in an election cycle, the chances are pretty good that the post-election lame duck legislation you’re seeking is going to be delivered in pretty much the form you expect. So it’s been relatively smooth sailing for Blue Cross Blue Shield of […]
Blue Cross getting quite a deal at Capitol
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Schools need help to better support and evaluate teachers
By Amber Arellano/Education Trust-Midwest Students in Michigan are increasingly falling behind their peers in other states, including states that are making major investments in their teachers. Michigan, meanwhile, has struggled to develop its teachers. A report by my organization, the nonprofit Education Trust-Midwest, helps to explain why: Our local school districts and charter schools have […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan metros see income boost
Personal income rose in 2011 in all of the nation’s 366 metropolitan statistical areas for the first time since 2007, according to estimates released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. When adjusted for inflation, however, 44 metros actually experienced income loss. Leading the pack were the Odessa and Midland metros, both in Texas, showing […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Land O Links
* The Nation rounds up data on why U.S. children struggle in comparisons with youth in other industrialized nations: “In one long-term study of roughly 200 children born into poverty in Minnesota, the quality of the mother-child relationship during the first three and a half years of life strongly predicted whether the child would drop […]
Posted inTalent & Education
School choice: not your father's classroom
Imagine a world where your teenage son chooses high school courses like picking dishes in a cafeteria – a serving of Advanced Placement chemistry in the white collar enclave across the river, Spanish online at the dining room table, an English class at the local community college, band at his home school. Now imagine that […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Bills would turn Michigan into 'super choice' state
Michigan Board of Education President John Austin calls it a “nuclear bomb.” National education reformer Diane Ravitch proclaims “Michigan is on its way to ending public education.” Michigan Future Inc. President Lou Glazer warns that local school districts won’t survive. Welcome to education reform in Michigan, circa 2012. A coordinated series of draft and introduced […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* “Today, the average substation transformer in the U.S. is 42 years old — two years older than its expected life span. A recent Department of Energy report warned that 70 percent of the largest high-voltage power transformers — each weighing up to 800,000 pounds — are more than 25 years old, and subject to an […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Choice proposal bets on market forces
By Brendan Walsh The Oxford Foundation’s proposal on school choice made landfall last week full of sound and fury – and igniting a bit more. But what does it truly signify? It delivers “student choice” in spades and that has the education reform movement rejoicing. Reaction from the incumbent establishment was predictable. “The deeply flawed […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: No time to wait on renewable energy
By Jim Dulzo/Michigan Land Use Institute The ruckus over renewables isn’t over: Proposal 3’s advocates sound even more determined to boost renewables goals beyond their current “10 percent by 2015” target and make Michigan a jobs-rich, global, renewables manufacturing leader. “This is not the end, it is the beginning,” said Diane Byrum, of Byrum Fisk, […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Legislature poised to act on Right to Work
The Legislature opened its 2012 “lame duck” session this week. Where’s that phrase come from, anyway? Well, it was first used as a down-on-his-luck stockbroker, since an injured duck who cannot keep up with the flock is an easy target for predators. In the political world, lame ducks are something else again: Officeholders who were […]