According to polling data and "conversations" held by the Center for Michigan, the general public is less interested in expanding school choice than it is in other policy options.
More than 50 percent of poll respondents said that increasing school choice in Michigan was important, but other options, such as providing "stronger support for educators" or improving "teacher preparation" were more popular.
A Huffington Post article titled “Charter School Growth in Michigan Brings a Cautionary Tale on Quality” goes to great lengths to twist the overwhelmingly positive results of a new study of Michigan’s charter schools by Stanford University into something else.
Bruce Edward Walker, former editor of Michigan Science, writes in Sunday’s Lansing State Journal about the negative environmental and economic impact of ethanol subsidies.
Center analysts have addressed this issue numerous times, including here, here and here.
The Michigan House and Senate are still getting organized for the 2013-2014 legislative session, which among other things requires giving committee assignments to 110 state representatives and 38 state senators. Each legislator serves on three or four of the dozens of policy and appropriations committees, so regular committee meeting times must also be juggled to minimize conflicts.
Senior Legislative Analyst Jack McHugh explains in a Deadline Detroit story today that people across the political spectrum should all be concerned about the “crony capitalism” involved in protectionist auto dealer laws.
“They are in every legislative district. They are an employer in every legislative district,” McHugh said about dealers. “They have the financial depth and geographic breadth.”
Security was tighter than ever as Gov. Rick Snyder made his third "State of the State" address. Though anti-right-to-work demonstrators arrived at the State Capitol two hours earlier hoping to get inside the building, state police blocked all doors except to anyone pre-credentialed.
The results from Stanford University’s brand new study of charter public schools in Michigan are impressive: 42 percent of charter schools bested conventional schools in math achievement gains and 35 percent did the same in reading. Only 2 percent of charters did worse in reading and only 6 percent did worse in math.
Birmingham is the latest district to participate in Michigan's Schools of Choice program. But, according to school board members and Superintendent Daniel Nerad, the move isn't really about letting students who don't live in Birmingham attend a better school — it's about money.
A new study of Michigan charter public schools from Stanford University — the most rigorous one to date — found overwhelming positive academic results for charter school students. Measuring average growth in reading scores, 35 percent of charters did better than conventional public schools, while only 2 percent did worse. In math, 42 percent of charters did better and only 6 percent did worse. These overall findings are impressive, but also promising is the study’s evidence suggesting that the charter school market is working too.
Though electric vehicles may not be attracting much hype at the Detroit Auto Show, their owners do enjoy privileged status in the city of Ann Arbor.
While parking downtown, electric vehicle owners can charge their cars for free. The charging stations are typically located at the front of parking garages, and are reserved for electric vehicles only.
A new study showing the success of charter public schools in Michigan was released yesterday and the response from the media shows the importance of the Mackinac Center’s news website, Michigan Capitol Confidential.
While the report, released by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University, received some attention from media outlets in Michigan, the way it was covered is revealing.
In a letter to The Detroit News, the director of the Wayne County Great Start Collaborative states, “There is no higher return on investment than on money spent on the education and care of children before they reach kindergarten[.]”
This is an abuse of economic analysis. The argument comes from a study arguing that a dollar of spending on early childhood education results in $16 in overall societal gains. These multiplier studies are misleading.
The new study by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes is the most thorough analysis ever done of Michigan’s public charter schools, and the results are almost entirely positive.
Of the 56 different outcomes tested, CREDO found 52 positive results for public charter schools and their students when compared to conventional public schools.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio addressed about 40 people Monday night at a meeting regarding prevailing wages and a proposed new jail in Muskegon County, according to MLive.
“Essentially prevailing wage costs taxpayers and it takes out competition,” he told the group. “And it doesn’t allow as many people to get jobs, because the cost of labor is artificially high.”
With a surplus of middle-tier state universities offering four-year degrees whose value is coming under increasing scrutiny by students and families, Michigan is ripe for a revolution described by an article in the current American Interest online, “The End of the University as We Know It” by Nathan Harden.
Brent Graves, a biology professor at Northern Michigan University, sarcastically promotes in MLive a “right-to-live” law to balance right-to-work laws in Michigan. But the attempt to make worker freedom proponents look silly comes up short.
Graves proposes that his “right-to-live” law would allow Michigan residents to choose whether to opt out of paying taxes while still receiving benefits from state government. Graves’s main point is that there are similarities between union representation and an elected government:
Mackinac Center board member Rodney Lockwood and Senior Economist David Littmann are part of a group that will present a plan for private investors to purchase Belle Isle from the city of Detroit for $1 billion and create a "free-market utopia" there, according to The Detroit News and Crain's Detroit Business.
State and national media are widely reporting the findings of a new study by Mackinac Center analysts.that shows tobacco taxes in Michigan and other states increase cigarette smuggling.
The New York Times, New York Post, CBS in Detroit, Bloomberg, The Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call, the Gaithersburg (Md.) Gazette, MLive, Reuters, Albuquerque Business First, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Commercial Appeal, CNN and the Midland Daily News have all covered the story. LaFaive also discussed it on "The Tony Conley Show" on WILS AM1320 in Lansing.
Supporters of the president are circulating a chart around the Internet that makes it appear his plans are turning around the economy.
The president's plans are not doing that, but the chart below that's being used makes it look like the so-called economic recovery began at the same time as President Obama's inauguration in January 2009.
Michigan’s 97th Legislature convened for the first time this week, with the House and Senate electing officers and adopting rules. Twenty-six House members (out of 110) first elected in November were sworn in, while all 38 Senators continue the four-year terms they began two years ago.
Bridge Magazine, part of a group called The Center for Michigan, has released a ranking system for Michigan schools that takes into account the socio-economic backgrounds of students that is “similar” to one introduced by Mackinac Center analysts six months ago, according to MLive.
Newly elected Gratiot County Commissioner Scott Showers suggested at the body’s first meeting of the year Tuesday that all of the commissioners read “Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy,” written by Mackinac Center President Emeritus Lawrence W. Reed, according to the Mount Pleasant Morning Sun.
Supporters of punitively high tobacco tax rates should be careful what they wish for.
According to the Mackinac Center’s latest estimate of cigarette smuggling rates, Michigan is No. 10 nationally in the proportion of cigarettes being smoked here that are illegally smuggled in. This is the third such estimate the Center has produced, and the details are disconcerting. The smuggling rate here increased 12 percent since 2009, with contraband smokes now representing 29.3 percent of all consumption.
Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio was on Fox Business with Neil Cavuto Wednesday night discussing the possibilities of unions mounting a recall effort against Gov. Rick Snyder due to Michigan becoming the 24th right-to-work state.
Vernuccio said he did not think such an effort would succeed, and said it could give union members more incentive to resign their membership under Michigan’s right-to-work law if they thought their dues were being misspent on such politics.
A metro-Detroit mayor is offering free bumper stickers to people opposed to Michigan’s new right-to-work law, according to The Detroit News.
“If he wants to prevent workers’ freedom from coming to Michigan, then that’s his own prerogative,” Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio told The News. “If he wants to go back to the days of forced unionism … he’s free to do so — as long as he isn’t using taxpayer funds.”
