We all want our children to succeed and for our state to flourish.  The fact is that good paying jobs are increasingly requiring more education and the jobs will go where educated workers can be found. Michigan needs the Common Core. The standards have been carefully researched and developed to ensure their rigor and relevance in a 21st-century knowledge economy.  After decades of shrinking incomes and population, Michigan is starting to rebound. To make our recovery permanent, we need to make sure our children have the knowledge and skills that employers need. 

With the Common Core in place, teachers and schools have a reliable yardstick for determining whether their learners are on track to keep pace with their peers across the globe. Michigan still gets to decide the curricula that should be taught and teachers get to decide how to teach.

The Common Core is essential to make sure every graduate in Michigan has been well prepared for the world of tomorrow. Business Leaders for Michigan joins with education leaders, research and advocacy groups like the Business Round Table, Detroit Regional Chamber, Education Trust-Midwest, and many others to support full and continuing implementation of the Common Core.

Our goal is to make Michigan a Top Ten state for job, economic and personal income growth. Whether it’s in traditional Michigan industry sectors like manufacturing and agriculture or growing ones like healthcare and technology, Michigan’s ability to grow economically will be driven by increases in productivity tied to talent and innovation – and our education system is a primary incubator of both. The Common Core State Standards will ensure that all Michigan kids have the academic knowledge and skills to succeed after high school and help create a bright economic future for Michigan.

May 2, 2013

Dear Chairman Haveman and Chairman Kahn:

I am writing to express our organization’s strong support for implementing the Common Core State Standards. The standards are not a curriculum – they only specify what students should know and be able to do in each grade and by the end of high school to be career and college ready. 

 The data overwhelmingly demonstrates the need for and benefit of a quality education:

• Between now and 2018, 80% of the highest-paying, most in-demand jobs in Michigan will require an Associate’s degree or higher (Michigan Labor Market Information, Hot 50 Jobs);
• By 2025, Michigan will need 900,000 more workers with an Associate’s degree or higher to fill available jobs (Lumina Foundation); and,
• Those with higher levels of education earn more and are less likely to be unemployed (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The featured guest was Chad Holliday, Jr., Chairman of the board of directors of Bank of America, former CEO of DuPont Corporation and chair of the National Academy of Engineering. He shared the findings in the Research Universities and the Future of America, a report compiled in concert with leaders in academia, industry, government, and national laboratories. A workgroup discussion followed discussing the importance of higher education to the nation, business and citizens; how to better communicate the value of higher education to different stakeholders; how to better connect the needs of businesses with universities; and possible strategies for making college more affordable on a long-term basis.  This was the fourth in a series of meetings with business leaders across the nation to gain feedback on the recommendations.  Earlier meetings were held in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Arizona.

DETROIT, Mich., April 11, 2013 – Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM), the state’s business roundtable, continues to forecast that Michigan’s economy will grow faster than the U.S. economy over the next six to eighteen months.  The forecast is reinforced by 43 percent of BLM members planning to increase hiring in Michigan in just the next six months. 

“Michigan’s business leaders continue to be more bullish towards the state’s economic outlook than the nation’s again this quarter,” said Doug Rothwell, President & CEO. “While Michigan’s business climate continues to improve, no significant federal policy reforms have been adopted amidst the slowdown in global growth.  The net result is that business leaders are more optimistic about Michigan’s economy short- and long-term and are backing that optimism up with continued hiring.” 

Ann Arbor, Mich. — The state’s top leaders in business, life sciences, pharmaceutical and medical device innovation met today to develop strategies to grow Michigan’s bio-sciences industry. The meeting was hosted by MichBio, the state’s biosciences industry trade association. Today’s event was part of MichBio’s newly created CEO Leaders’ Club, a program series for senior bioscience executives from around the state. 

The featured guest was Alex Gorsky, Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson, and a native Michigander. A workgroup discussion followed the moderated Q&A and set the stage for initiating a bio-industry led strategic planning effort.

“We greatly appreciated Alex Gorsky’s national and global perspective about the future of the biosciences industry,” said Steven Rapundalo, President and CEO, MichBio. “Michigan needs a strategic path to leverage its strong legacy of biomedical innovation and commercialization. The states that are top ten in the life sciences industry have done two things well.  First, they’ve developed a strategic plan and have had the fortitude and commitment to follow it through. Second, they have addressed their workforce needs by working with higher education in an integrated manner to ensure that the industry is supported. All of our competitors have growth strategies, yet the last time that Michigan had one was a decade ago. It’s time to change that.”

DETROIT, Mich., Mar. 21, 2013— Michigan is following a national trend towards becoming a knowledge-based economy across all industry sectors, including traditional ones such as agriculture and manufacturing.  The trend is causing employment and income growth to be increasingly driven by education levels and has major consequences on how Michigan should best support economic growth, according to an in-depth study released today by Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM). 

The three primary findings of the BLM study are:

 1.    In the short run, Michigan generally appears to be producing talent with the right education, but not enough workers have the experience and skills that job providers need.

 2.      In the long run, Michigan faces challenges producing enough talent with the right education. Michigan’s slow population growth and low educational attainment cannot keep pace with the projected increase in the demand for educated talent.

 3.      If current trends continue, Michigan could find itself with too many people in need of lower-skilled, lower-wage jobs and not enough workers for many higher-skilled, higher-wage ones. Further, not all high-paying, high-demand positions may experience a shortage of talent.  This will require greater collaboration to anticipate future job employer needs through our education systems and responsive training programs.

LANSING Mich., March 11, 2013 — Nearly 450 business and policy leaders from across Michigan met today to discuss key assets for growing a New Michigan economy, and assessed the state’s progress toward economic prosperity. Top leaders shared industry insights and recommended key strategies focused around six key areas of economic opportunity that Michigan boasts.  Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM), which hosted the summit, unveiled baseline information on its New Michigan strategy.

“We have already identified some powerful strategies for change,” said Doug Rothwell, President and CEO. “By doing more of what Michigan does best, we can meet global needs and grow our own economy - but we have to be smart, aggressive, and focused on results.”

Rothwell said BLM’s first annual New Michigan report offers an important first step to help the state track its progress.  BLM issued its New Michigan plan in 2012.

“This gives us a clear idea of how we stack up to our competitors on key outputs: GDP, employment, and earnings,” Rothwell said. “It also tells us about our inputs in six critical opportunity areas. Each year, we’ll report how we’re doing, where we can grow, and what’s next.”

Doug Rothwell, President & CEO, said, “We applaud the Governor for continuing his commitment to getting Michigan’s fiscal house in order and addressing the long-standing debt obligations that have beleaguered our state. Getting our state on a strong fiscal footing is critical to a full economic recovery and an essential part of the Michigan Turnaround Plan.”

In addition, Business Leaders for Michigan praised the Governor for addressing early childhood needs in his budget presentation. “Studies show that children who participate in a good preschool experience have more success in life,” Rothwell said. “We want every child to enter kindergarten ready to succeed yet many of our children today are playing catch up. If we invest on the front end, they will do better in school and have better opportunities down the road.”

Rothwell also commented on the recommendations for higher education, “For the second year in a row, the Governor has proposed increases in higher education based on performance. We appreciate that the state has begun to reverse the decade of disinvestment in our colleges and universities. Investments in higher education contribute directly to our children and the state’s success. The changing global economy puts a premium on college graduates and Michigan is currently looking at a talent shortage of 900,000 graduates by 2020. To make college more affordable for our children, increase the number of college graduates our state needs to grow the economy and incent our colleges and universities to perform better than their peers, it will take a substantial long-term commitment. As the state’s fiscal health continues to return, it is critical we move even faster to boost state investments in areas that will promote future growth, such as higher education.”

DETROIT, Mich., February 5, 2013 – Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM), the state’s business roundtable, continues to forecast that Michigan’s economy will grow more than the U.S. economy over the next six to eighteen months.  The forecast is reinforced by 60 percent of BLM members planning to increase hiring in Michigan in just the next six months.  Nearly-two thirds added jobs in Michigan last year.    

“The avoidance of the fiscal cliff and slow, but steady domestic growth has boosted the overall economic outlook of Michigan’s largest job providers.  But they remain far more optimistic about Michigan vs. the nation’s economy by the largest margins we have seen since we started conducting these surveys in 2009,” said Doug Rothwell, President & CEO.  “The optimism of the state’s largest job providers for Michigan is based on progress made stabilizing the state’s finances, addressing long-term debt and structural budget deficits and improving the costs of doing business here.  These are the same issues they feel are not being addressed in Washington and are holding the national economy back from full recovery.  They demonstrated that optimism by adding jobs in Michigan last year and planning more this year.  Michigan is not an island and will be affected by slower national growth, but BLM members continue to believe we will out-perform the American economy over the next eighteen months.”

Download the full press release