Michigan Youth Political Alliance

Everyone in Michigan knows that our state’s economy is suffering. We hear it all over the news–the auto industry is declining, jobs are being lost, businesses are moving out to other states, mortgage foreclosures are surging. But with so much gloom and despair under the spotlight of the media, where are the solutions? Here are 3 in no specific order that could turn our economy around.

1. Increase Education Spending

While it is a national phenomenon that states face tighter budgets than ever and are forced to cut education costs significantly, it has impacted Michigan the most. Michigan is one of the top states in technological development. We rank “4th nationally for total employment in high tech industries with 568,000 high tech workers” currently, and in 2002 (although the data was gathered from 1999), we were the 2nd best state for research and development investments. Our state has always been focused on intensive education and training, producing the nation’s top engineers and scientists for the auto, biotech and other industries.

I heavily doubt we have stayed so high in the rankings after the last several years, and I bet that is due to our shrinking educational vision. Michigan schools recently received marginal budget increases, but it is far outpaced by the rise in salaries to compensate for rising energy and food prices. We need to expand our education budget to strengthen the state’s curriculum, especially in areas of math and science so we can retain our technological edge. We need to not only increase the number of jobs in Michigan, but to train our workers to be competitive so tech companies will still be attracted to our state.

2. Establish Mass Transit

One easy way to open up revenue for spending on education or any other area is to get the cars off the road. By constructing a mass transit system in metro-Detroit as well as Western and Central Michigan, we could save billions of dollars in road and bridge maintenance. Look here for a previous entry discussing this issue in greater depth.

3. Develop Alternative Energy

As noted above, Michigan is a technological powerhouse, making it the perfect candidate for the next alternative energy revolution. Forget California, the leading state for research and development investments, and the other 48 states competing with us for companies, we have the skilled workers right here ready to be retrained and retooled to drive the next biggest thing.

Our auto sector is already shifting their focus to developing biofuel, electric and hydrogen technologies from the pressure of high gas prices, new national fuel-economy standards and emission concerns. That means our engineers and workers are highly suited for alternative energy jobs as well. Our state is home to the nation’s first wood-to-ethanol plant and research and development on plug-in electric cars, lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid engines, propulsion inverters, lightweight materials and direct-injection diesel technology just to name a few.

Alternative energy is the direction our state is headed in whether we like it or not. Governor Granholm recently initiated the No Workers Left Behind program to prepare recently laid-off auto workers for positions in the alternative energy sector. Obama just stopped by Lansing to announce his economic vision for Michigan–one focused on alternative energy development as well.

Just by looking at the polls, we can see that Michiganians are certainly ready for the next massive jump in our state’s economy. Half of Michigan voters said that they cared more about the energy issue than the war in Iraq. 86% wanted the government to develop renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy.

Personally, I think that Michigan should even construct a nuclear power plant to start off its new legacy with a bang. 58% of Michigan voters support more nuclear power plants and nuclear power could drastically improve our energy costs at home and at work.

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