Governor Granholm's State of the State address last night struck familiar chords about the need for economic diversification and support for higher education. It did not, however, establish a significant roadmap for connecting the two imperatives for what she titles "A State in Transition." http://www.michigan.gov/.
Over the past seven years on Granholm's watch, "We have purposfully laid the foundation for Michigan's new economy," she said. "Where the old economy was all about autos and manufacturing, the new Michigan economy is much broader: clean energy, life sciences -- like bio-economy and medical devices -- homeland security and defense, advanced-manufacturing, film and tourism."
And on education, Granholm said it "made absolutely no sense" to abandon the Michigan Promise Scholarship program, and "break a promise to 100 Michigan families counting on it to send their kids to college." Thus, she announced her new budget would restore Michigan promise, "identify a creative way to pay for it, and give it a new focus: keeping our young people in Michigan when they earn their degrees."
Indeed, while Granholm could boast that, "No state has the skilled workforce we do," analysts say stemming the brain-drain will be vital to Michigan's economic health going forward. Moreover, much work remains to align the education-to-work pipeline into the six new economic sectors identified by the governor. MI perspective: hopefully, the governor will also devote a portion of her remaining year in office to provide leadership on communication between Michgan employers and the institutions training the workforce for a post-transition economy.
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