Talent & Education
To prosper, Michigan must be a more educated place. Bridge will explore the challenges in education and identify policies and initiatives that address them.
Articles
In Jackson, school choice bring new reality: students as fickle customers
Jackson loses 40 percent of school-age children to other districts and charters. How districts respond illustrates the free-market educational system for Michigan families, and the budgetary challenges districts face.
Where they stand: Michigan candidates for governor on K-12 education
Perhaps no issue is as important to Michigan’s future as improving the state’s schools and increasing the number of post-secondary graduates. Here’s how the candidates answered questions from Bridge.
Where they stand: Michigan governor candidates on college affordability
Some Michigan governor candidates want to make college free, others want to emphasize career tech. Here’s what the candidates facing primary challenges are saying about the rising cost of college.
Why rural Michigan teens are skipping out on college. It's not grades
If Michigan is going to deepen its talent pool, it needs to figure out how to get more rural high school grads onto campuses, and how to keep them there.
To get first-generation students to college: Could the answer be…a bus?
While other universities struggle to get rural and first-generation students to apply, Central Michigan University came up with a surprisingly simple solution: foot the bill to bring busloads for campus visits.
Public outcry delays Michigan social studies standards
Proposed changes in what’s taught as history in classrooms from kindergarten through high school are causing an uproar. The state is extending public hearings through September.
Ignore the sticker price at Michigan universities. Here’s the real cost.
Bridge shows the surprising differences between the published price and the real cost of attending Michigan’s 15 public universities. Students from middle-class and low-income families take note.
Graphic: The cost for your family at 15 Michigan universities
If you know your household income, you can look up the actual cost of attending each of Michigan’s 15 public universities, as of the 2016-17 school year.
Groups join hands to fix Michigan schools. Will it make a difference?
Leaders from education, business, unions and philanthropy announced Wednesday that they will huddle to improve the state’s lagging public schools.
Crowds growing to protest changes to Michigan social studies standards
Public meetings that attracted just a few folks have grown bigger and louder since Bridge revealed conservative changes to Michigan K-12 social studies standards.
Michigan school board Dems: We will block conservative social studies changes
References to gay rights, Roe v. Wade and climate change have been stripped from state K-12 social studies standards. Democrats on the state school board have the votes to block the changes, and vow to do so
Michigan’s top teacher on Betsy DeVos, school shootings and testing
Luke Wilcox isn’t shy about sharing his opinions, with Bridge Magazine or the U.S. Secretary of Education
What Michigan schools can learn from craft beer
To turn around Michigan schools, stop trying to produce Budweiser, and brew more Oberon. That’s the TED Talk message (without the actual alcohol) of Michigan’s Teacher of the Year.
History gets a conservative twist in Michigan social studies standards
Abortion, climate change and gay rights are gone from proposed new social studies standards. State Sen. Patrick Colbeck and conservative groups gained influence on what will taught in Michigan classrooms.
Michigan State quietly settles ‘touching’ case, clearing accused male student
Hours after two students had sex, the man touched the woman’s breast without asking. He was later disciplined. But the process left both students feeling betrayed by Michigan State University's response.
A Michigan school devoted to innovation. Here’s why others won’t follow.
Michigan schools may be flailing, but major reform is tough. Just look at Kent Innovation High.
He loved teaching math in Michigan. Then he quit to manage a Chick-fil-A.
What does it say about Michigan schools when working at a fast food restaurant is more appealing – and more profitable – than being a veteran teacher?
Once at rock bottom, this Northern Michigan elementary now produces stars
Michigan’s low-income fourth-graders have some of the lowest reading scores in the nation, and few fared worse than students in Cadillac. Four years later, Cadillac fourth-graders are high-flyers. How did they do it?
See how low-income students fare in your Michigan school district
Poor children in Michigan struggle compared with more affluent classmates. See how your district is faring in this Bridge school database.
Low-income Grand Rapids preschoolers are catching up. Will Lansing notice?
A pre-K program supported by the Kellogg Foundation is getting 3- and 4-year-olds ready to start kindergarten. Expansion across Michigan would have a steep price tag, but high returns.