The State of the State

This past Wednesday, January 18th, Governor Rick Snyder addressed the Michigan legislature for his second State of the State address in Lansing. 

He stated that his administration had some unfinished business to tackle in 2012: 

"We have far too many young people who are not leaving school with the education they need to succeed in the future. We have an economic climate – it has left too many people unemployed, underemployed or forced to leave the state.  Particularly our young people. We will address these unaddressed issues and solve them and not put them off as we have in the past."--Governor Rick Snyder 1/18/2012

Increasing adult educational attainment is critical to connecting the 1 in 2 residents of the city of Detroit who are unemployed and underemployed right now to good jobs in our new economy. This includes newly minted adults—or the young people that the governor refers to.  This is a critical opportunity for Detroit, where we know that access to services to improve basic skills (e.g., reading, writing, math, digital literacy), especially those that relate to careers, is extremely limited in and around the city.

In May of 2011, The Detroit Regional Workforce Fund released a study demonstrating the need for more basic literacy skills opportunities– reading and math—for the Metro Detroit area.  As the governor and his staff take a deep dive into the issues of our region’s unemployed and underemployed, I hope they review the recommendations proposed.  They are still just as valid in January 2012 as they were eight months ago.   You can find that report here. 


In case you missed it, you can listen to Gov. Snyder's State of the State Address here.