When Attorney General Bill Schuette first proposed his “4 strikes and you’re out” plan for repeat felons, the Michigan Department of Corrections said the additional costs to the prison system could exceed $1 billion per year by the middle of the 21st century. New calculations by the department, incorporated into a Senate Fiscal Agency analysis, […]
Cost of '4 strikes' plan drops, still means millions more for prisons
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine” — H. L. Mencken, 20th century American newspaperman. * Publius, a nonprofit in Michigan dedicated to promoting civic participation, put together a short video clip that explains how Detroit got in a position where fixing streetlights or providing police protection […]
Posted inPhil's Column
State leaders run wrong way on higher education
The progressive group Business Leaders for Michigan just held a leadership summit devoted to the topic of learning and our state’s economic future. The theme was “Higher Education: A Growth Engine for the New Michigan” and it drew a lot of high-powered, knowledgeable people to the Lansing Center Monday afternoon. They came from various places […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Romney and a student walk into a coffee shop …
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spoke at Lansing Community College Tuesday, suggesting that “somewhere in a coffeehouse, a student, maybe here in Lansing, is sketching out an idea that will change our lives.” A block away from the auditorium where Romney spoke is Gibson’s coffee shop, a hangout for students attending Lansing Community College. […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Remediation: Higher ed's expensive 'bridge to nowhere'
More than a third of incoming college students in Michigan take high school-level classes on campus — essentially repeating material they should have learned before they got their diplomas. Those remedial classes may cost students, schools and taxpayers more than $100 million a year, and often don’t lead to a degree; many of the 23,000 […]
Posted inTalent & Education
See how your local schools do on college remediation
In more than 100 school districts across the state, more than half the graduates enrolling in public colleges take remedial courses — in essence repeating lessons that should have been learned in high school. Using the searchable database below of 515 public school districts with complete data, check out how your school district fares in remediation, […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Who's ready for college? Who's scoring?
What percentage of Michigan high school seniors are ready for college? 17 percent 61 percent 74 percent The correct answer is: No one really knows. About 74 percent of high school students graduate, which, if the diploma means something, should make them college and/or career ready. By the standards used by the Michigan Department of […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Enrolling in community college is just half the battle
The good news: Low-income students are enrolling in Michigan colleges at a record rate. The bad news: Many of them won’t leave with degrees. While more low-income students are making it to campus, they’re more likely to attend Michigan community colleges, where the graduation rates are among the lowest in the nation. “These kids hit […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Time to play 'Moneyball' with K-12 funding
By Brendan Walsh/Grosse Pointe School Board treasurer When he proposed Michigan’s largest-ever cut in public education spending last year, Gov. Rick Snyder cited a statistic that only 16 percent of the state’s high school graduates were college-ready. “Michigan’s education system is not giving our taxpayers, our teachers, or our students the return on investment we […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers” — Alfred Lord Tennyson, 19th century British poet laureate. * Washtenaw County residents are now short $350,000 because the county stepped in to cover debt payments by a township (Sylvan) for water and sewer work for a development that never materialized. (Hat tip to Bridge contributor Jon Zemke.) Now the […]