Grosse Pointe Housing Foundation aid
helps new Park resident get rooted

If you had told me five years ago that I would be living in the beautiful community of Grosse Pointe Park, studying for a Wayne State University degree in political science and working for the Detroit Red Wings I would have replied, not a chance. But thanks to the assistance of the Grosse Pointe Housing Foundation I’m able to afford an awesome upper unit in the Cabbage Patch, because I’m a full-time student at a four-year university. read more...

A new tactic: bridge company wants 'people' to decide

The Detroit International Bridge Company, which owns the Ambassador Bridge, wants to put a state constitutional amendment on the ballot, one that would require a statewide vote for the New International Trade Crossing bridge to go forward.

There’s little mystery as to what this is really all about. The bridge company is entirely owned by one family -- Grosse Pointe Shores resident Manuel “Matty” Moroun, his wife Nora and their son, Matthew Moroun. read more...

What lies around the corner? Maybe World War III

I’m not sure how many people realize it yet, but this year is clearly shaping up to be one of the most fiercely partisan in Michigan political history – and I’m not even talking about any of the races involving candidates. 

Completely apart from the personalities, it seems likely that there will be two enormously consequential and venomously divisive issues on the November ballot. Plus, a third issue – what to do about Detroit’s financial mess – is bound to preoccupy us all.

Here’s a preview of the landscape ahead: read more...

Time to fix K-12 education in Michigan, before it's too late

There was a lot of education news last week -- much of it grim, and all of it indicating that this state needs to make big changes.

Pronto.

First of all, The Education Trust-Midwest, a statewide policy organization, released a new report that showed academic achievement among Michigan’s higher-income and white students has declined when compared with similar kids in other states.

This is highly significant, as much of the debate over school performance has centered on low-income and minority students.

This study showed that Michigan students of all sorts have lost ground since 2003. African-American students ranked last in fourth grade reading among the 45 states that reported in 2011.

But fourth grade math scores for white students, are also 45th, having fallen from 13th in the country just eight years previously. Reading scores are only slightly better, and now 35th nationally.

The Education Trust report concludes, “While our state has taken a few bold steps in the past year to improve our education system, our students still lag far behind their peers nationally, and the performance gaps between them – across income levels and race – are both alarming and persistent.” read more...

Comment: 'College user tax' burdens
Michigan students more than others

For more than a decade, Michigan’s elected officials have imposed what amounts to a severe tax on the hundreds of thousands of students who attend our public universities.

The consequences of this “college user tax” – clearly amounting to millions of dollars per year – include raising the cost bar for young Michiganders to attend college by thousands, saddling graduates and their families with crushing college debt and making higher education impossible for others.

Worse, it is eroding Michigan’s ability to resurrect our struggling economy. According to a study released this week by Bridge Magazine, an online publication of The Center for Michigan, the non-profit, non-partisan organization I founded five years ago: “Michigan families pay more to send their children to state universities than families in almost any other state.”

The reason? A “decades-long decision to skim money from the state’s 15 public universities.” Michigan gives less money to its public universities than almost any other state. As state support drops, more of the cost of college is shifted to students and their families. read more...

Comment: In 2012, a more vibrant,
focused Michigan for everyone

Today, the country is middle-aged but self-indulgent. Bad habits have accumulated. Interest groups have emerged to protect the status quo. The job is to restore old disciplines, strip away decaying structures and reform the welfare state. The country needs a productive midlife crisis.

 – David Brooks, in the New York Times

For the past three years, the New Year has arrived both “gloomy and doomy.” But this time around, things feel different -- and better. read more...

Want your voice heard on education?
The Center for Michigan is listening

Here’s one pretty safe assumption: I’m far from alone in being disgusted with the way our political system is “working” these days.

What seems to be happening, both in Michigan and all over the country, is this: A mix of highly partisan activists, passionate ideologues and special interest groups are succeeding in mostly closing the political process to the views of ordinary citizens.

As a result, if you’re not part of the Republican or Democratic base or if you’re not a Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street ideologue, your voice simply won’t be heard.

So what can we do to get our state and country back on an even keel? One idea is to pull ordinary people together and ask what they’re thinking. Then you actually listen hard, take careful notes, amplify their views and bring them into the halls of power. read more...

A prison makes a poor mental hospital;
new approach would be cheaper, more humane

Michigan taxpayers could save millions of dollars every year, not suffer any hardship and do humanity a service. How?  Simply by shifting treatment of the mentally ill from state prisons and local jails to a system of outpatient treatment and mental health courts.

This would also reverse a mistake of epic proportions. Over the past decade, the ugly truth is that the treatment of thousands of mentally dysfunctional people in Michigan has moved from state mental hospitals to prisons and jails. 

We may not have intended this, but it's what happened. In an interview last week, Wayne County Chief Probate Judge Milton Mack, who has studied these matters for years, noted: “In Michigan, jail or prison has become the primary inpatient center for the mentally ill.” 

How did this happen?  read more...

An outstanding pair of new hospitals
shows what universities bring to Michigan

The other day, my wife Kathy and I went to have a look through the new, soon-to-open University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospitals.

The hospitals, located on the south side of the U of M medical system’s campus, have been under construction for the last four years. (The women’s hospital is actually included within the children’s hospital complex; the idea is seamless mother-and-baby care.)

This was, in fact, the largest construction project on Michigan. And the scope of the finished project is breathtaking 1.1 million square feet overall, housing 348 inpatient pediatric beds, 50 maternity rooms, 16 operating rooms, 48 neonatal intensive care rooms and a rooftop helipad for emergency flights.

The cost? A total of $745 million, funded through hospital system reserves and philanthropy. Cost to the state? Zero. read more...

Comment: Every action has a reaction,
and last week's election is likely proof

It wasn’t a revolution – but it just might signify a sea change.

I’m referring to the results of the Nov. 8 off-year elections, which were anxiously scrutinized for possible indicators of public mood. Would that message be a continuation of 2010’s sharp tilt to the Tea Party-driven right – or a cautionary tale about over-reaching?

The big news in Michigan was the recall – by a miniscule, unofficial 197 votes out of more than 24,000 cast – of Rep. Paul Scott (R-Grand Blanc). Scott had been chair of the House Education Committee, which had enraged teachers’ unions by passing “tenure reform,” making it easier for schools to fire ineffective teachers. The Michigan Education Association badly wanted to oust Scott – and threw a reported $150,000 into the campaign plus many volunteer “ground troops.” read more...