By John Bebow - March 28, 2008
Michigan's high school hallways are jam-packed this year -- as full as we are likely to see them for the next generation and beyond.
Michigan is expected to produce 111,000 public high school grads this year. By 2022, that number will drop by 19,700 (or 18 percent) because of changing demographic patterns, according to new national projections of high school graduation trends.
Click here for a one-page summary of Michigan graduation trends for the next 15 years. The numbers raise big questions for taxpayers who keep the lights on and the salaries paid in those schools, and those throughout the public sector tasked with providing the best Michigan public educations at the most reasonable price. Consider:
Slice and dice the numbers in more detail and more questions emerge...
Nationally recognized workforce development expert Bob Jones recently emailed the Center for Michigan with some thoughts on these trends: "Again, this points out that Michigan will have to improve k-12 education of black and Hispanic students, improve their entry to post secondary, improve their grad rate, and improve funding for low income and minority students... if they are going to have competitive workforce. These projections are based on current trends in both drop outs and grad rates."
The numbers, and Jones' sentiments, underscore the importance of events like the first "Michigan Pre-College and Youth Outreach Conference" on Friday, November 21 at MSU.
"Independent of state investment in higher education, we are seeking ways for Michigan's higher education system to increase efforts to develop collaborations and effectively communicate the value of pre-college programming in shifting youth onto life-course pathways that both value education and lead to success in Michigan's educational system," writes William Edwards, who carries the nifty title at MSU of "Pre-College Program Strategist & Assessment Specialist.
2 Comments
What were we expecting? When parents leave, so do their kids. My best friend of 25 years left Michigan two years ago after the birth of their daughter in favor of a job in Montana. He had to work three jobs to maintain the same standard of living here. This is at least one more kid that won't go to school here.
The business and economic climate is a huge disincentive to stay here. Even though there's a glut of forclosure palaces, few people have the perfect credit history to afford a house.
This was just an example. We should demand that our state government step down and they forfiet any severance pay and rebuild from the ground up. Businesses need a government that understands their concerns and will take into consideration what other states are doing to attract new jobs.
Individually, we're smart, collectively we're worse than incompetent. We need a regime change in this state.
TRENDS IN HIGH SCHOOL HALLWAYS.......When I first saw the title, I was hoping it might have been about a trend that we need to welcome and nurture: MORE CARING CITIZENS, RETIREES WITH ALL OF THEIR ACADEMIC AND TECHNICAL SKILLS,
QUALIFIED MENTORS, TUTORS, HALL AND LUNCH ROOM MONITORS WHO CAN DO WONDERS TO MAKE OUR SCHOOLS
SCENES FOR A LOT MORE SERIOUS LEARNING. THE SENIORS ARE OUT THERE. WE HEAR A LOT ABOUT OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS LIKE DETROIT NEEDING "SYSTEMIC CHANGE"-SOUNDS REALLY IMPRESSIVE! I THINK THE REAL ANSWERS ARE MORE ON THE VERY HUMAN AND VERY DO-ABLE LEVEL.
AT ONE OF THE RECENT COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS I PARTICIPATED IN , A VETERAN EDUCATOR GAVE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW EFFECTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE
FOR THE KIDS SENIORS ARE WHEN THEY COME ONBOARD.
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