University Graduate Rates

This post is from a blog written by Lou Glazer, the head of the organization called Michigan's Future Inc..Lou Glazer and I have been colleagues over the years in state government. 

In this blog Lou writes:  

"And although a college education is the great equalizer in the American economy, too often the definition of what constitutes whether a student is “college material” is fraught with class considerations. According to Paul Tough , who has written extensively and brilliantly about student success, only one-quarter of college freshmen from the lower half of the economic scale will go on to finish a degree. That statistic for children of parents in the top economic quartile? Approximately 90 percent."

This blog is making the point that colleges and universities must get better, much better, at making sure that when they recruit a high school student to come to their institution that they are making a commitment to that student (and their families) that the institution will do everything to make sure the student graduates with a degree.  This includes not only standard retention programs for academic performance but programs that help students adjust to their new life.  This is especially true for first gen students--they need someone who they can talk to about issues that come on a campus that no one in their family can address because they never have been part of a campus community.

This a good read.

 

 

 http://www.michiganfuture.org/09/2017/boosting-graduation-rates-a-moral-imperative-for-michigan-universities/

The Future of Coal:  A Debate In Every State Due To This Coalition

Inside the war on coal: How Mike Bloomberg, red-state businesses, and a lot of Midwestern lawyers are changing American energy faster than you think," by Mike Grunwald: "The war on coal is not just political rhetoric, or a paranoid fantasy concocted by rapacious polluters. It's real and it's relentless. Over the past five years, it has killed a coal-fired power plant every 10 days. ... Beyond Coal is the most extensive, expensive and effective campaign in the [Sierra] Club's 123-year history, and maybe the history of the environmental movement. ...

"[I]t's helped retire more than one third of America's coal plants since its launch in 2010, one dull hearing at a time. With a vast war chest donated by Michael Bloomberg, unlikely allies from the business world, and a strategy that relies more on economics than ecology, its team of nearly 200 litigators and organizers has won battles in the Midwestern and Appalachian coal belts, in the reddest of red states, in almost every state that burns coal." http://politi.co/1At0lRj

Poverty and the Public Square

if we are going to make the elimination of poverty we must make it a priority in public policy.  Not huge programs like a "war on poverty" , but attack it piece by piece and prioritize making sure every American understands how poverty impacts and affects every American, not just the victims of poverty. 

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/may/08/child-poverty-case-for-cash-allowances/

Prison Reform in Norway A Leadership Opportunity in the Public Square



Maybe as we look at the poverty cycle and the impact on the "opportunity gap" we should take a look at what Norway is doing now in their prisons.  Closing the Opportunity Gap should include what we do in prisons and what we do with ex prisoners as they mainstream into society.  Education  gaps need to be closed and that means GED reforms and pushes, post secondary career training, and baccalaureate opportunities.  All of this needs to begin with sentencing guideline reforms and related issues.    NYT http://nyti.ms/1HMmyZ2



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