The latest Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) reveals how local leaders feel about the need for ethics reform in the Great Lakes State. Tom Ivacko (MPA '93), program manager of the Ford School’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP),...
The United States government has a portfolio of roughly $1 trillion in student loans, many of which appear to be troubled writes Susan Dynarski in the business section of the Sunday New York Times. Dynarski’s column, “We’re frighteningly in the dark...
At a microfinance bank in Maputo, Mozambique, Dean Yang and colleagues engaged clients in a lab-in-the-field experiment with interesting implications for those who care about increasing the number and level of remittances, the financial...
Susan Dynarski recently co-authored “How can we track trends in educational attainment by parental income? Hint: not with the Current Population Study,” posted March 12 by the Brookings Institution.With Matthew M. Chingos of Brookings, Dynarski...
In this year’s State of the Union address, President Obama put forth a plan to make a student’s first two years of community college free. But is that plan viable? Susan Dynarski sees problems that must be fixed before it can conceivably work.“How...
According to re-released rankings from U.S. News and World Report, the Ford School is tied with Harvard's Kennedy School for the #1 ranking in "social policy" among U.S. schools of public affairs. The school is also ranked third in "public policy...
“Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa employs two-thirds of the labor force and generates about one-third of GDP growth,” writes Dean Yang in the introduction to “Facilitating savings from agriculture: field experimental evidence from Malawi,” a...
Diana Won (MPP ‘15) is one of 18 Americans selected for the competitive Luce Scholars program. Won was selected from 156 candidates who were nominated by 16 academic institutions (Won was nominated by Rutgers, her undergraduate school). Her...
In a March 2 story for openDemocracy, Susan Waltz writes about “Moving Closer to the Ground,” Amnesty International’s ambitious, multi-year initiative to “disperse many of the functions of its London-based International Secretariat to hubs around...
“Over the years, Michigan’s gotten to know Joe Schwarz in many roles: State Legislator, U.S. Congressman, Gubernatorial candidate, and others. But there’s a lot more,” writes Mark Bashore, who interviewed Schwarz for Current State.The interview,...
Some Ford School alums choose to work on the east coast or the west. Some work abroad. Some work in city government, county government, or state. But many have an interest in spending some portion of their careers in Washington, DC. For these...
A recent CLOSUP report presenting the opinions of Michigan local government leaders on the state of roads was cited by the Associated Press, Detroit Free Press, and other media outlets.
Most of the media coverage focused on the fact that while 79...
By Mandira BanerjeeCleaning upAs Erin Zaikis lay sick with dengue fever in a Thailand hospital in 2013, she had an epiphany. She wanted to dedicate her life to helping others.Confined to her hospital bed with little to do, she ran through images of...
Nadiya Kostyuk, a doctoral candidate in the Ford School’s public policy and political science joint-PhD program, is one of two-dozen graduate students selected for the 2015 Diplomacy and Diversity Fellowship program. From May 29 through June 28,...
By Greta GuestComplaining about bad roads in Michigan is about as ubiquitous as grousing about the weather.How bad are the roads? The Ford School's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy surveyed top elected and appointed officials in the state's...
At the East Lansing City Council’s February 17 meeting, five first year Ford School masters students, winners of the inaugural Ford Case Competition, presented to the council their proposal to resolve the city’s downtown parking concerns. The city,...
Could Detroit’s renaissance begin to extend past the downtown and Midtown areas? Community Ventures, a new worker retraining program, is trying to make that happen, and Elisabeth Gerber, who analyzed the program with a group of four Ford...
Mel Levitsky was quoted in an International Business Times story on the recently negotiated cease-fire between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists. While both sides gave concessions to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, reporter Dennis Lynch...
We are deeply saddened to report that Peter Harbage (MPP ‘95), a national leader in health care policy and founder and president of Harbage Consulting, passed away on February 3 after complications from leukemia. Harbage’s colleagues described him...
Direct Relief International (DRI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan relief organization with Ford School ties, recently received accolades for its innovative work in mapping the spread of Ebola in west Africa. In a recent Fast Company article, "The World's...
“Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration,” co-written by Dean Yang, has been published in the World Bank Research Observer. Posted on January 20, Yang and co-author David McKenzie of the World Bank aim to,...
Brian Jacob was called to testify last week as a witness for the prosecution in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial, in which prosecutors allege a dozen educators engaged in a “widespread, cleverly disguised” conspiracy to improve their...
State Representative Gretchen Driskell, an MPA candidate at the Ford School, has made it official: she is running for Congress. In a press conference Monday morning, Driskell announced that she will challenge Republican incumbent Tim Walberg for...
Education Week highlights Isaac McFarlin Jr.’s latest study in “Failing a Placement Exam Does Not Discourage College Enrollment,” posted by Caralee Adams on January 15.“State test cited in lower college enrollments,” a 1995 Dallas Morning News...
The White House is backing down on a minor provision detailed in the Obama administration’s tax reform proposals, but Susan Dynarski doesn’t think that provision should be given up on so easily.
The Los Angeles Times’ Kathleen Hennessy writes...
