I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The state Dept. of Labor and Economic Growth announced this week that federal funding cuts had forced it to scale back the No Worker Left Behind Program, which offers college tuition to help low-income and laid-off workers make a start in a new career field.
Today the Detroit News reports that since the retraining program began 29 months ago, nearly half of those who have completed the training program have been unable to find work.
Unveiled by the governor in August 2007, the No Worker Left Behind Program aims to retrain 100,000 displaced Michigan workers for high-demand fields. Students are eligible for up to $10,000 in tuition over two years, enough to earn an associate degree at a community college. The landmark program was intended to give laid-off workers a free shot at higher education to transition from the assembly line to growing fields like green technology, health care and IT.
The program has been very popular — more than 130,000 have enrolled in the retraining program; 38,000 are still in training; and around 20,000 are on a waiting list to participate.
However, the News reports some noteworthy findings: Many participants have had to drop out because of financial difficulties; 47 percent of those who completed their training have not found jobs; and the state does not provide information on the types of jobs that people did find after graduation making it hard to evaluate the success of the program.
Some suggest that retraining works best with workers who are — unlike many former auto industry workers — already highly trained.
The News notes that a December 2008 U.S. Labor Department study has called into question role of retraining programs in reducing unemployment.
A study of the federal Workforce Investment Act, a major funding source for the Michigan program, found “gains from participation are small or nonexistent.” Comparing laid-off workers who retrained to those with similar characteristics who did not, researchers found “little evidence that training produces substantial benefits” on earnings and employment three to four years later.
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