By Brandy Johnson and Marjorie D. Cohen
Reprinted with persmission from The Review magazine

In order for Michigan cities to sustain vibrant economies and healthy communities, they must implement bold strategies that ensure more of the residents attain college degrees and valuable postsecondary certificates.

A recent study by CEOs for Cities found that 58 percent of a region’s economic health comes from the educational attainment of its residents. Another one from Georgetown University predicts that 62 percent of all Michigan jobs will require postsecondary education by the year 2018.

The benefits of increased levels of education to cities are substantial. Per capita income increases, and subsequently so do tax revenues. Unemployment goes down and so does reliance on public benefits. Crime goes down and volunteerism goes up. The demand for a more highly skilled workforce is growing—and municipal leaders have a unique opportunity to be a part of the supply-side solution.

According to the National League of Cities (NLC), municipal officials are uniquely positioned to form new partnerships with leaders in K-12 and higher education, workforce development, and business to increase postsecondary completion rates.

With support from Lumina Foundation, NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education and Families has developed a new series of publications highlighting city strategies to increase local college completion rates. They have also analyzed the role that mayors are playing to support college access and success in their cities. In the last few years, municipal leaders in dozens of cities have launched new, multi-sector collaborations to dramatically increase the proportion of residents in their communities who obtain postsecondary degrees and credentials. City officials are increasingly focused on postsecondary success as a core component of their economic development strategies.

In Michigan, municipal leaders have the opportunity to leverage new resources for their communities by joining a growing coalition of networks committed to ensure more of their residents pursue and complete education beyond high school.

In 2008, a group of high-level leaders representing K-12, higher education, business, government, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy, began meeting to discuss the possibility of establishing a statewide network responsible for galvanizing an educational attainment movement in the state.

Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) formally launched in 2010 with support from federal, state, and philanthropic funding and was charged with increasing Michigan’s educational attainment rate to 60 percent by the year 2025. Only about 36 percent of Michigan adults aged 25-64 possess at least an associate degree (to find your county’s rate, visit www.luminafoundation.org/state/Michigan/).

Local College Access Networks
Just three years later, MCAN is now supporting more than 50 communities’ efforts to mobilize leadership and resources around the goal of increasing the educational attainment of their citizens with a focus on aligning systems around college readiness, college participation, and college completion rates. Far too many Michigan students don’t pursue higher education after high school—and many that do, don’t ever complete a degree because they aren’t socially, academically, informationally, or financially prepared. MCAN helps communities build cross-sector strategic alliances, known as Local College Access Networks, or LCANs.

Each LCAN:
• Agrees on a vision;
• Establishes clear college readiness/
participation/completion goals;
• Aligns and coordinates existing organizations to shared goals to fill differentiated roles;
• Implements a collaborative action plan based on data-driven community priorities; and
• Tracks progress on goals transparently and holds partners accountable for results.

Michigan Communities Involved
Communities throughout Michigan are designing and implementing innovative strategies to boost college attainment via their LCANs. In Newaygo County, community leaders have raised enough funds to place full-time college advisers in each of their high schools to provide one-on-one assistance guidance to all graduating seniors. Benton Harbor, Hazel Park, Lansing, Pontiac, and Saginaw have all launched universal place-based scholarships to all students inspired by the Kalamazoo Promise. Muskegon County and St. Clair County are each leading major public awareness campaigns to build a college-going culture.

Bay City and Jackson both opened college access resource centers where students and families can visit to get advice and resources on postsecondary educational opportunities. Escanaba has identified former students who are not enrolled in college but are within 12 credits from an associate degree and supports them to complete the degree. Sturgis recently launched a 10-year strategic plan for the city and has lifted up their LCAN as their primary workforce development strategy. Detroit and Grand Rapids are both participating in a national competition to demonstrate the largest increase in postsecondary completion—the winner will get a $1 million prize to launch a national promotional campaign highlighting local efforts.

Steps Municipal Leaders Can Take
In their recent respective publications, both MCAN and NLC have outlined a set of action steps for municipal leaders who are concerned about low college completion rates and want to identify and advance solutions. As a first step, local officials can convene leaders from across sectors to develop a more coordinated strategy to provide students will supports and services they need to graduate with a postsecondary credential.

Additional action steps mayors/presidents should take include:
• Conducting an inventory or scan of local college access and success efforts across sectors, institutions, and community partners;
• Hosting consultative sessions to listen to the perspectives of various stakeholders;
• Establishing a leadership structure to guide and sustain college access and completion efforts;
• Seeking consensus regarding measurable outcomes and key benchmarks or milestones to assess progress;
• Creating data sharing agreements and protocols in order to assemble a fuller picture of the municipality’s education pipeline;
• Developing and implementing action plans that have the potential to “move the needle” on college completion; and
• Persistently raising awareness and celebrating early victories to build and sustain momentum.

To read more about the NLC Postsecondary Success Action Guides, go here.

For Michigan municipal leaders, MCAN can provide grant funding, hands-on technical assistance, and additional tools to interested funding. For more information, visit www.micollegeaccess.org.

Brandy Johnson is the executive director of the Michigan College Access Network. You may reach her at 517-454-1387 or brandy@micollegeaccess.org. Marjorie D. Cohen is a senior associate at the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families. You may reach her at 202-626-3052 or cohen@nlc.org.

Last week the legislature adjourned until September.  There are a few tentative days scheduled in July and August but, as of now, there will be no voting and no attendance taken on those days. The legislature broke without voting on anything regarding future transportation funding.  This will continue to be a hot topic for the fall when they return to full session.

One other issue left hanging for the summer is Medicaid expansion. The House passed Medicaid expansion two weeks ago giving the Senate one week to pass it themselves.  Coming down to the final day of session before the summer recess, the Senate adjourned last Thursday without taking a vote.  Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville has stated he wants at least half of the Republican caucus to vote for the package.  Governor Snyder cut an overseas business trip short and flew back on Thursday to try and help shore up the votes but no vote was ever taken.  He has publicly expressed his disappointment with a no vote action and is making his rounds across the state to some key republican districts in order to get citizens to engage in persuading their legislator to vote for the expansion.  This will likely be a hot topic going through the summer and into the fall if they can’t get it done this summer.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.

Since beginning work at the MML some 8 years ago, I have always marked the official start of summer by the annual trip to visit members in the Upper Peninsula through our Region 7 meeting.  Always an anticipated event not just because of the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the UP and the hospitality of local officials in the region, but also because it means a road trip with colleagues and an opportunity to relive such events of years gone by.

This year was no different as we rolled our way across the bridge to Bessemer in the far western UP.  Ten hours in a car with family, let alone co-workers, is a challenge at any point in time, but this year was made easier by the outstanding weather, scenery and of course the company.

And as is the case with any of the League’s meetings, there was a lot of listening and learning from each other and presenters. I was even given the opportunity to present on the League’s place-based strategies with a focus on the MIPlace Partnership Initiative. However, what I hoped would be an uplifting session was in the end as challenging as any I’ve given, having forgotten the golden rule of presentations…know thy audience.

It hit me during the question and answers session. A councilman spoke to thank me for the session, since it made clear for him that he did not want his community becoming anything like those I had spoken of. Having lived in larger communities downstate, he was now very satisfied being in a small town that offered amenities more in tune with a family lifestyle than with that of attracting a young and talented workforce.

As we talked, I noted that at the end of the day it is up to the local community and its leaders to figure out who they are and what they want to be.  And as I thought about our discussion later and talked with colleagues, I realized that what I should have been focusing on was the larger picture of what it means in 21^st century terms for local officials to provide a high “quality of  life”.

You see, my presentation focused on the latest demographics and market research showing the groups prevalent today and what they’re looking for in a community.  And while that is all well and good, what got lost in translation is the fact that the amenities the two largest groups in society today (young people and empty nest baby boomers) are looking for relate back to quality of life not just for them but for all of us.

Attributes such as walkable downtowns and neighborhoods, quality public spaces such as parks, different housing options including mixed-use commercial residential in our downtowns, and transportation options like bike lanes are all part of a broader package of qualities that work to make a community vibrant and resilient, whether you are looking to attract young professionals, families, retirees or all three groups.

This has always been the point of the League’s emphasis on “place” and we are finding it to be true time and again as we uncover successes across the state in communities big and small, urban, rural and suburban.  If nothing else, our trip not only again confirmed how geographically large and diverse our state is, it also confirmed that each and every community across the state has something to offer toward providing a high quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Andy Schor, HB 4478, passed the full house on Thursday that would allow a person who is unable to write or who cannot sign a signature due to a physical disability to use a signature stamp on election documents (voter applications, absentee ballots, absentee envelopes, etc).  Currently, the law states that individuals who cannot write are allowed to make their mark.  This legislation adds in the ability to use a signature stamp (a preservation of their signature from in the past) instead of a “mark” and defines physical disability.

The League is supportive of this legislation.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.