Integration and increasing mobility
Income mobility in American is declining. Increasingly what your parents earn predicts what you will earn. Certainly not consistent with the core American value of equal opportunity. As President Obama...
View ArticleSixty percent with credentials
Sixty percent is becoming the standard estimate of the proportion of working age adults who need a post secondary credential to meet the skill needs of the state and national economy. These credentials...
View ArticleLow unemployment, but …
The economic good news is the declining unemployment rate, particularly in Michigan. But when you look behind the headline number the jobs picture is a lot less positive. The unemployment rate decline...
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Employment in Michigan and Minnesota
The biggest push-back we get on our using Minnesota as a model for Michigan is racial. Some version of “they don’t have the concentration of minorities–particularly low income African Americans–we...
View ArticleEmployment in Michigan and Minnesota II
In my last post we explored the differences in the employment to population ratio in Michigan compared to Minnesota by gender, race and age. We found that across the board, with the exceptions of...
View ArticleLiberal arts and tech
Terrific Forbes article by George Anders entitled “That Useless Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech’s Hottest Ticket”. Its a must read for anyone interested in education or economic development....
View ArticleA question
Governor Snyder in a MLive op ed writes: “Raising the taxes on our job creators would be economically challenging for Michigan, especially after we’ve come so far in reinventing our business climate.”...
View ArticleNot occupation specific education
A central theme of our work has been that successful careers, in an economy constantly changing due to globalization and technology, requires us to be good rock climbers, rather than ladder climbers....
View ArticleThe right top ten updated
We are working on our next report: an assessment of the national, Michigan, metro Detroit and metro Grand Rapids economies in the fifth year of a national expansion. We continue to believe that per...
View ArticleThe bottom ten
We explored in our last post the ten states with the highest net employment earnings (wages and employer paid benefits) per capita. The component of per capita income we believe is the key to long term...
View ArticleCareers and the liberal arts
As you know we believe that successful careers going forward are going to look far more like rock climbing than ladder climbing. The notion of career ladders––known linear steps up––is increasingly out...
View ArticlePost secondary certificates vs. four-year degrees
Governor Snyder is in the vanguard of elected officials and business leaders who are pushing for more Michigan students to pursue occupational certificates and associate degrees with an occupational...
View ArticleTwo books about poverty
Two highly recommended books about poverty in America: Stuck in Place by Patrick Sharkey $2.00 a Day by Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer In this post we will focus on Stuck in America. I will write about...
View ArticleProsperity and college attainment
Data are now available for 2014 for per capita income and education attainment by state. Michigan ranks 35th in per capita income and 34th in the proportion of adults with a four year degree or more....
View ArticleProsperity and college attainment II
In my last post we explored the alignment between state’s per capita income and the proportion of adults with a four year degree. Increasing four year degree attainment is a powerful lever in dealing...
View ArticleThe case for building broad skills for all
The Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) has developed an approach to education for all children that is designed to develop the skills that employers hire for. Those same skills are the...
View ArticleWork requires broad skills
More evidence that work increasingly requires broad, rather than narrow occupation specific, skills. Terrific article in the Atlantic entitled The Unexpected Schools Championing the Liberal Arts:...
View ArticleThe case for a stronger safety net
Two insightful Eduardo Porter columns for the New York Times. One entitled The myth of welfare’s corrupting influence on the poor. The other entitled The Republican party’s strategy to ignore poverty....
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Alarm bells needed
Lots of new data on student achievement by Michigan k-12 students. All with a single conclusion: we are a national laggard. All kids, not just poor kids, minority kids, urban kids. The results from the...
View ArticleAlarm bells needed II
We finished our last post this way: The bottom line: the Massachusetts approach has worked, Michigan’s hasn’t. Seems like its time for Michigan to learn from the state with the highest student...
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