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Obamacare repeal-and-replace is underway, and regardless of whether it passes or fails big, changes are coming for Michigan’s medical services and insurance industry, and the state’s social welfare system, especially Medicaid.
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MLive Erroneously Reports New Flint Police Officers Get Just $11.25/Hour
A report by the MLive news site stated that the city of Flint pays new police officers just $11.25 an hour, which is less what than janitors, manicurists and bellhops earn. This is misleading because it’s the amount paid to prospective officers who are still going through the police academy. … more
Meet The New Teachers Union Myths, Same As The Old Ones
The Michigan Education Association's "listening tour" has dubious claims. … more
Giving More Taxpayer Dollars to Universities Won’t Make Michigan More Educated
In The Detroit News, Michigan Tech President Glenn Mroz argues for more taxpayer spending on state universities. Students that get degrees, he explains, earn more than those without them. But he never says that giving state universities more taxpayers dollars will result in more students earning degrees. It won’t. … more
Detroit Charter Schools Outperform District School Peers On State Tests
Charter school students in Detroit outperformed their peers in the city’s conventional school district in 15 of the 18 subjects on state tests given to all Michigan public school students last spring. … more
Best Schools In Michigan Would Vanish If For-Profit Charters Were Banned
Four of the best performing charter schools in the state would be closed if two Democratic candidates for governor had their way. … more
The Quiet Good News: US Economy Is Doing Really Well
While not much is being said about it, the US economy is thriving. The median household income is at an all-time high. … more
Post Labor Day Weekend Good Time for Tourism Talk
There have been some recent developments and debates on the tourism front. They involve empty criticism of the Mackinac Center’s tourism study; an Auditor General investigation into a Pure Michigan consultant’s reports and the announcement that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation will again bid out the right to calculate a return on investment for the Pure Michigan program. … more
More Inaccuracies in New York Times Attack on Michigan Charter Schools
The New York Times Magazine published a 7,000-word story on Sept. 5 that attacked Michigan’s charter schools. Among the themes it promoted was one popular among charter school opponents, that charters are all about the money because their boards hire for-profit education management companies to operate their schools. … more
New York Times Cherry-Picks Data In Takedown Of Michigan Charter Schools
Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes calls itself "the nation's foremost independent analysis of charter school effectiveness. But its reports were ignored in a New York Times magazine article critical of Michigan charters. … more
New York Times Article, Critical of Charter Schools, Misses Key Point on School Funding
The New York Times Magazine ran an article critical of charter schools and mischaracterized school finances in Michigan. The article repeated a myth that districts serving poor communities are not funded as well as those in more affluent ones. … more
The Michigan Administrative Code, a compilation of all the rules and regulations created and enforced by state agencies, contains more than 83,000 mandates, requirements, restrictions and more. All told, they run to over 4.6 million words.
The agencies that have promulgated the most regulations are the state departments of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Environmental Quality, and Treasury. The figures come from research done by the Mercatus Center.
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For years, municipal officials have used reductions in state revenue sharing as a device to promote local tax increases and lobby for more money from the state.
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Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell claimed the state has "abandoned" his city in terms of financial support. The facts say otherwise.
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An advocate for the subsidizing of the forest industry in Michigan claimed it provides 154,000 jobs in Michigan. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says it's 1,833 jobs.
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UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel characterized his union’s failed effort to organize a Nissan factory in Canton, Mississippi, earlier this month as only “a few hundred votes” away from being successful.
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An article by a Detroit freelance writer named Drew Philp titled “‘The new Obama’: will Abdul El-Sayed be America’s first Muslim governor?” said Michigan was suffering hard times. But those days are in the rear view mirror.
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MEA President Steve Cook says teachers don't have any time to go to work conferences during the school year. But the Lansing School District gave its teachers 746 days to attend conferences on school time last year.
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The city of Lansing has several retired police and fire employees who make more in retirement than they did while working. The reason? Pension calculations that reward employees who can pile up overtime as they near retirement.
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The Grand Rapids Education Association is promoting a myth that there's a teacher shortage. That district received as many as 740 applicants for one teaching position.
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Despite a Democratic state rep's claim, unflattering comparisons aren't made just about women.
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Michigan's taxes through June have generated an extra $875.9 million compared to the same time period in 2016. And some politicians said the state couldn't afford a cut to the income tax that would have cost $463 million.
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