Posted inLand O Links

Land O Links

* Michigan charter schools get praise from Stanford University: “A new report released today by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found that the typical student in a Michigan charter school gains more learning in a year than his or her district school peer, amounting to about an additional two months of learning […]

Posted inLand O Links

Land O Links

* Lou Glazer at Michigan Future Inc. has new reports out on metropolitan economies in Michigan between 2001 and 2010. He writes on Grand Rapids: “From 2001-2010, the seven county Grand Rapids regional economy performed better than the Michigan economy. That said it was a decade of decline. And the region in 2010 was one […]

Posted inLand O Links

Land O Links

“Knowledge … shall always bear witness like a clarion to its creator” — Leonardo Da Vinci. * The Michigan Campaign Finance Network reports a record year for lobbyist spending inLansingin 2011. The $35.3 million spent is more than the state general fund budget this year for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs ($33 million): […]

Posted inQuality of Life

Promise helps Kalamazoo weather tough times

For a decade, Michigan’s economic dashboard has flashed red: high unemployment, record foreclosures, bankrupt automakers, population declines. And the Kalamazoo region hasn’t been spared from the pain that spread across Michigan. But leaders and families in Kalamazoo are hopeful that the start of the 21st century will mostly be remembered for the birth, in 2005, […]

Posted inQuality of Life

How do you hold on to the hipsters?

The biggest danger to the revitalization of Detroit’s Midtown — and, by extension, the city itself — doesn’t pack a gun or wield foreclosure papers. He wears a backpack and chews bubble gum. Children — and their parents’ perceptions about local schools — will determine whether the young professionals now streaming into Midtown stay in […]

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