Michigan’s Defining Moment: Dark Clouds, Silver Linings

Are only storm clouds on the horizon for Michigan? According to two experts, maybe so. But taking a hard look at the facts and figures is the only way we can brighten up the horizon.         

On May 27, 2010, Leaders Without Borders sponsored a breakfast meeting to discuss the report “Michigan’s Defining Moment—Making it Happen.”  The Center for Michigan, a nonpartisan “think and do” tank, issued the report that was based upon the input of more than 10,000 ordinary citizens. Together they created an agenda for Michigan’s future.         

Data Driven Detroit's Kurt Metzger at the Leaders Without Borders breakfast

 

The report includes a 2010 Michigan Scorecard created in partnership with Data Driven Detroit. The Scorecard measures Michigan’s performance in the areas citizens found most crucial to the state’s success, including education, tax policy and economic development. Sunny icons represent the state’s “good” standing in comparison to other states and regions. Partly cloudy icons represent “average” performance, and “stormy” icons represent comparatively poor performance.         

At the breakfast, D3’s Kurt Metzger described some of the data behind the storm clouds that have gathered over Michigan. In 2008, 14.4 percent of Michigan residents were in poverty.         

 “No neighboring Great Lakes State has more people in poverty,” Metzger said.         

Education: flunking the test         

The state also received a stormy rating in employment. Michigan has been repeatedly at the bottom among states, leading the nation in unemployment for four straight years.         

Education isn’t much brighter, said Metzger. Although recent MEAP scores indicate improvements in reading and math skills, Michigan students are tanking on the National Assessment of Educational Program (NAEP). For example, in 2009 more than 84 percent of Michigan fourth graders scored “proficient” or better on the MEAP, but only 30 percent scored “proficient” or better on the NAEP.          

The same year, 70.3 percent of Michigan eighth graders scored well on the Michigan math test, while only a third of them passed the NAEP. The gap of proficiency between the state and national tests makes you wonder if we are just dumbing down the tests to make ourselves feel good, Metzger said.         

Poor test performance may be linked to the lack of funding devoted to education in Michigan, said Metzger. Although Michigan educators are well-paid, the data shows the state is slipping in money spent per-pupil. Metzger suggested we start rethinking the big paychecks for superintendents and give the money to the kids.         

Stemming the brain drain         

Education isn’t the only place where dark clouds loom over Michigan. The state is also ranked last in population growth in this decade.         

“Migration led to growth in every state, but Michigan,” said Metzger. “We have to find a way to bring young people back to Michigan.”    

Phil Power stressed the common agenda that Michiganders share.

 

Undaunted by the dark clouds, the Center for Michigan’s Phil Power insisted that it is only by taking an accurate assessment of where we are that the state can begin to address its critical needs. Like a coach before the big game, he motivated the leaders present to form nonpartisan coalitions to help build Michigan’s future. The Center’s report, “Michigan’s Defining Moment—Making it Happen,” gives ten steps to transforming Michigan. The primary target areas are: Economic Growth & Quality Of Life; A Talented, Globally Competitive Workforce; and an Effective, Efficient & Accountable Government.        

Angela Wynn and Joan Morehead are all smiles after the Michigan's Defining Moment presentation

 

 “It has to be a collective act from all of us in order to save our state,” Power said.         

Angela Wynn, Senior Community Liaison for Blue Cross Blue Shield, was compelled by the focus on bi-partisan education reform. “I’m an advocate for education,” she said, “so anything about education grabbed my interest.”         

Joan Morehead, a community leader who develops workshops for the unemployed, was amazed at how the priorities for the state remained consistent across different demographic groups. “Our needs are more similar than dissimilar,” she said.         

Power stressed the importance of having a shared vision, and putting our differences aside to achieve a mutual goal.         

“We are at the hinge of our history,” he said. “We cannot let things go on the way they are.”

D.C. Data Conference: A Meeting of the Minds

From May 12 -14, our staff attended the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) bi-annual meeting in Washington, D.C. NNIP is a project of the Urban Institute that helps integrate neighborhood-level information systems with local policymakers and community leaders.

The conference was a welcome opportunity for Data Driven Detroit to network with other data organizations and share recent work, new ideas and community solutions.  We know that your eyes may have glazed over, and you would have had a hard time hiding your yawns. But for us, it was a rare opportunity to engage with folks that are truly interested in numbers, methodology, metadata, and how our work can help transform communities.

One of the highlights was a presentation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) about its 2010-2015 Strategic Plan.  HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Raphael Bostic was present to review the five goals laid out in the plan: 1) Strengthen the Nation’s Housing Market to Bolster the Economy and Protect Consumers, 2) Meet the Need for Quality Affordable Rental Homes, 3) Utilize Housing as a Platform for Improving Quality of Life, 4) Build Inclusive and Sustainable Communities Free From Discrimination, and 5) Transform the Way HUD Does Business.

HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic

We were particularly intrigued by this statement in HUD’s executive summary about the importance of policy backed by good data:

In the last quarter century, a golden era of innovation was unlocked. This innovation, coupled with advances in tech­nology and management and the use of data and evidence-based policy, has helped create a New Business Model in places that have adapted to these changes, bringing a new accountability to the public sector. …We believe a new business model can unlock a much broader scale of transformation—both within HUD and more broadly with the potential to fundamentally change the way federal government works.

HUD wants to make more information available to their customers so that resources can be targeted. According to the plan, they are committed to “taking the holistic, cross-cutting view of community development required to make the biggest difference on the ground.”  Mr. Bostic, both during his presentation and after a question and answer session, left the data people gathered at the conference with a feeling of hope that somewhere behind the curtain, the culture is changing in D.C.

In a strange way, we were comforted by the fact that Detroit is not the only region wrestling with tough issues these days.  Many of our partners in states with manufacturing-based economies are also grappling with the effects of the decline of manufacturing in this country; many suffer from racial tensions similar to our own; most see the same urban-suburban disparities so characteristic of our metro area.

Still, they are rooting for Detroit to get back on its feet, and for our region to move forward.  We left D.C. with a renewed confidence that by sharing good information and forming evidence-based policies, the citizens of our region can find a way through our current challenges toward a brighter, more prosperous, equitable and sustainable future.