Mid-Michigan Goes for Bio-Manufacturing

$15 million federal grant will be used to jump-start a new manufacturing sector in mid-Michigan that will create products from the state's plentiful supply of grains and plants instead of from petrochemicals, a spokesman for the Mid-Michigan Innovation Alliance said Wednesday.

Mid-Michigan is one of 13 regions around the nation that is receiving a three-year, $15 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (Wired) grant from the federal government. Representatives from each community met this week to share their plans and get a pep talk from Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.

Read more here.

Southeast Florida Expected to See Growth Slowing

Southeast Florida's job creation pace, the strongest in the nation last year, will slow by 24 percent in the next decade, according to the first-ever regional economic report and forecast published Wednesday by the Economic Development Research Institute.

Even so, the EDRI report predicts that the seven-county region stretching from Monroe County to Indian River County will produce 500,000 new jobs by 2015.

Leading the regional economy will be growth in professional services and health care. Employment related to the Scripps Research Institute could bring up to 45,750 jobs to the region.

However, declines in jobs in agriculture, little or no growth in manufacturing and wholesale trade, and a slowdown in the expansion of retailing and real estate will temper the pace of job creation, said Greta van Unruh, EDRI executive director.

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Quad Cities Bi-State Regional Commission

Mission: To serve as a forum for intergovernmental cooperation and delivery of regional programs and to assist member local governments in planning and project development.

The Bi-State Regional Commission is: A local, voluntary organization of five counties and 43 municipalities.

The Bi-State Regional Commission is Not: Another layer or higher authority of government; nor is Bi-State created, controlled or maintained by the federal or state governments.

The Beginning: The Bi-State Metropolitan Planning Commission was created in 1966 through the merger of the Scott County (IA) Metropolitan Planning Commission and the Rock Island County (IL) Regional Planning Commission. This merger took place, in part, in response to the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1962 which required transportation planning in metropolitan areas to be done cooperatively. In 1974, the Henry County (IL) Regional Planning Commission merged with Bi-State, at the urging of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Henry County's status as part of the three county Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), as defined by the Census Bureau. Then in 1976, Mercer County (IL) and Muscatine County (IA) joined Bi-State.

Authority Granted: County Boards, city councils and village boards enter into an agreement designating Bi-State as the regional planning commission by virtue of the powers granted to them by Chapter 50, Act 15/0.01 et seq., Chapter 55, ILCS 5/5-14001 et seq., Illinois Compiled Statues, 1992; and Chapters 28E, 28H and 28I, Code of Iowa, 1993.

Local Governments Share the Cost: Member counties and cities over 5,000 population pay dues prorated, based on their total population ranging from $2,117 to $65,063. Smaller cities and villages pay a flat rate of approximately $969. Total annual dues of approximately $346,000 help bring in nearly $569,000 in federal and state funds which, with contractual services, provide for a $1.5 million budget in FY 2006.

Learn more here.

New Committee for Economic Development Report on Early Childhood Education

CED’s latest paper, The Benefits of High-Quality Early Childhood Education Programs: What Makes the Difference?, by Ellen Galinsky, President of the Families and Work Institute, a New York City based research organization, examines the factors associated with high-quality early education programs.

Ms. Galinsky examined three well-known, high-quality early education programs – the High/Scope Perry Preschool project, the Carolina Abcedarian Project and Chicago’s Child Parent Centers (CPC) – and for one of the first times, has examined what those programs did to have such lasting impact decades later, relying, in part, on interviews with the principal investigators of those programs.

“The Galinsky paper reinforces that high-quality programs are a prerequisite if we expect early childhood education programs to generate future economic returns,” said Charles E.M. Kolb, President of CED. “Determining key characteristics of quality Pre-Kindergarten education is an important piece of the argument for investments in early education programs in this country, and this research does just that. Other studies show public benefits of around seven dollars and more for every dollar invested in early childhood education and the Galinsky research shows what common factors can be found in these quality programs.”

Findings of The Benefits of High-Quality Early Childhood Education Programs: What Makes the Difference? include: All three programs studied had common factors that contributed to remarkable and enduring effects and return on investment. Some of those basic factors are known:

• They began early (one began in infancy; the other two at age 3).
• They had well-educated, well-trained and well-compensated teachers – with resulting low-turnover.
• They maintained small class sizes and high teacher-child ratios.
• They had intensive contact hours with the children.
• Two of the programs extended into the early elementary years.
• Parents were strongly involved in the programs.

Where this paper makes its greatest contribution is that it goes beyond the basics to explain the programs’ long-term success:

• The programs had clear goals that were responsive to the children and families they served, and built support for these goals.
• They focused on the whole child – the child’s intellectual, social and emotional learning, physical growth and well-being –not just on the child’s intellectual development.
• The relationship between the teacher and the child was seen as central to the child’s learning.
• The children in these programs were viewed as active and experiential learners.
• There was a mixture between responsive teaching that extended and elaborated on what the children were already learning and direct teaching in all three programs. The direct teaching was also designed to be engaging and to extend children’s learning.
• There was a focus on the teachers’ ongoing learning.

Read the full paper here.

Brookings on First Suburbs

What is a first suburb? Why do we care? By definition, first suburb counties are places that adjoin a central city that was one of the hundred most populous cities in 1950. These counties were literally the first to suburbanize, many after World War II, some even prior to World War II, in the era of trolley cars. Over the past half-century, many labels have been given to these places. Older suburbs, inner-ring suburbs, first-tier communities, close-in suburbs. Several weeks ago Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard referenced the latest entry, "inurbs."

We call them first suburbs partly to reflect the sequence of suburbanization, partly to avoid any pejorative term that would inhibit market investment, and partly to acknowledge that these places are worthy of special attention from federal and state governments, private investors, political pundits, and academics. We've got to have a plug for Brookings.

Read the report here.