Enrollment for pregnant moms and newborns in Flint began Wednesday, January 10, as Rx Kids officially launched – the first citywide maternal and infant cash prescription program in the nation.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer attended the...
More than half of Flint residents favor reparations for Black Americans, although levels of support vary depending on whether the proposal refers to reparations as a broad concept or specific reparative policies like cash payments or financial...
Luke Shaefer, WDET Detroit Today: Country and after country, when they apply this cash transfer scheme -- raising kids is expensive and so society has a reason to come alongside parents in that work -- child poverty...
A new program that will grant Flint families with new babies $7,500 has been making the news, as it addresses "one of the most fundamental social determinants of health: poverty." The program, Rx Kids, received an initial grant of $15 million from...
CLOSUP, The Bond Buyer: "Flint is also at the forefront of the development of XBRL for financial reporting. Flint participated in a pilot project with the University of Michigan's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the school's Ford School...
A group of local leaders and public health researchers are sharing their process for responding to racism as a public health crisis, with the goal of supporting other municipalities and organizations in addressing the links between racism and health...
Increasing transparency in how local government works got a boost when the U.S. Congress passed the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA) on December 15, 2022. The act requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt data standards related...
In a new commentary, Luke Shaefer, Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy, and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, an MSU professor of public health, call on Congress to do one last thing in their lame duck session: renew the...
Through a Michigan pilot program, Stephanie Leiser and the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy are building a taxonomy for machine-readable local government financial documents.
"Transparency into local government fiscal health is needed...
Governments, standard setters, regulators and analysts encouraged to provide input
A pilot project involving the University of Michigan and others is exploring whether a new fiscal reporting mechanism for governmental entities can help create...
The turmoil surrounding the City of Flint, MI – most infamously the Flint Water Crisis – has become a cautionary tale for other Rust Belt cities struggling to balance their budgets, provide services, and attract new business. A 20-year review of the...
The recent Education Policy Initiative study about Flint, which found Math achievement for school-age children in Flint decreased and the proportion of children with special needs increased as a result of the Michigan city's water crisis during...
Michigan Radio reports that disinvestment in Michigan's local governments has had a direct effect on the deterioration of basic infrastructure, especially water and sewage systems.
Stephanie Leiser, who leads the Michigan Local Government Fiscal...
Improving literacy outcomes for children is critical to students’ academic success as well as their career and life outcomes. Michigan's Top 10 Strategic Education Plan (SEP) aims to provide focused direction to Michigan's education community in...
News outlets are applauding Tom Ivacko and the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy's announcement about a project with the city of Flint that will examine whether a new fiscal reporting mechanism can help create transparency in local fiscal...
The water crisis in Flint and the bankruptcy in Detroit were separate events that had a common theme -- they had been caused in part by fiscal challenges decades in the making. Avoiding similar tragedies in the future could be tied to greater...
While still operating in a mostly-virtual, hybrid academic world, Ford School students were able to learn and serve during the Spring Term through the Program in Practical Policy Engagement (P3E) and its Practical Community Learning Projects (PCLP)....
New analysis from the U.S. Census Bureau data from 2017 reveals Flint is the poorest city in the U.S. of its size, and that more than half of the city’s child residents are living in poverty, according to a September 17, 2018 article by Zahra...
Passions were running high at the NCAA championship basketball game between the University of Michigan and Villanova University on April 2. But Meghan Klaric (MPP ’18) says some Villanova fans crossed the line when they hung a banner near campus...
CLOSUP program manager Tom Ivacko’s “What is lost when a state takes over a city,” was published on April 13 by Governing.com. The piece, which ran in "Voices of the Governing Institute," describes Michigan’s restrictive local government finance...
On Saturday February 6, nineteen Ford School MPPs volunteered with the Flint Red Cross to help with water delivery and outreach efforts in the wake of Flint’s water crisis. Students went door-to-door delivering water filters and cases of water and...
In a February 5 guest column for Bridge Magazine, a publication of The Center for Michigan, Reynolds Farley discusses Michigan’s controversial emergency management system and proposes solutions to help underfunded localities.
Farley's...
In a press release on Wednesday Gov. Rick Snyder appointed a task force to review "actions regarding water use and testing in Flint" and to make recommendations for future guidelines. Among those appointed is the Ford School's own Dr. Matthew...
Kary Moss, a lecturer at the Ford School and executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, worked with a coalition of groups behind the Flint Water Study to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take...
A current Education Policy Initiative study is the topic of the September 26 MLive article by Roberto Acosta, “University of Michigan studies reading system that Flushing woman created; state officials interested in results.”
The system is...
Media throughout Michigan reported on the Ford School panel discussion regarding the state's new "Emergency Manager" law, technically known as Public Act 4 of 2011, the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act.The panel...
David Thacher explores the growing gulf in public safety between haves, have-nots.
Flint and Ann Arbor, Mich., are roughly equal in size. But that's where the comparison ends. Ann Arbor is home to a rapidly growing tech industry, a highly...
Join for a conversation with the co-authors of The Injustice of Place alongside Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan COO Nicole Sherard-Freeman. Released in August 2023, The Injustice of Place sheds light on America’s most disadvantaged communities, tracing the legacies of our nation’s places of deepest need—including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families.
Michigan Public Budgeting and Finance Planning class (PubPol 715) invites you to join them for a conversation with guest speaker Robert Widigan, former CFO for the City of Flint and incoming Chief Deputy CFO of Wayne County.
