As quickly as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for forming a bipartisan coalition to study and provide recommendations to reverse Michigan’s decades-long population decline, the resulting report, released in December 2023, looks to have been placed on the proverbial shelf.

In June 2023, after five years in office, Whitmer announced at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference the creation of what would become the Growing Michigan Together Council. Follow.ing the conference, she also appointed a chief growth officer.

The governor selected two co-chairs to lead the council: Ambassador John Rakolta Jr., chairman of Walbridge in Detroit, one of the nation’s largest contractors; and Shirley Stancato, a member of the Board of Governors at Wayne State University and past president and CEO of New Detroit Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating racial disparities in southeast Michigan.

In short order, the governor and the co-chairs selected 28 people (21 voting members and seven nonvoting) to “make Michigan a magnet for jobs, people, and prosperity.” Over six months, the council met often and produced what many knew would be a sobering report on economic decline, given the state’s falling share of population and percentage of median household income in the United States since 1970.

While the council completed its report, the governor hasn’t revealed at what level she will support its recommendations, nor how she will implement any changes. What’s more, Whitmer’s precondition that the organization “reflect the socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, occupational, political, and geographic diversity of Michigan” left out actual population experts.

Consider that of the 21 voting members on the council, two are CEOs of major corporations, and neither directly represents the largest industries in the state — automotive and manufacturing, tourism, and agriculture. The rest of the council is mostly made up of politicians, labor union personnel, nonprofit directors, and educational leaders. All of the nonvoting members, meanwhile, represent the state, save for one official from Michigan State University.

So far, the governor has provided no real funding or support structure to implement the identified needs and growth strategies she called for. According to a March 2024 report, “Growing Michi.gan with Great Schools,” written by two professors emeritus at Michigan State University, Mike Addonizio and David Arsen, “the extent to which the council’s report will have a lasting influence on state policy is currently uncertain.”

They added, “the governor’s 2025 executive budget recommendations, issued in February 2024, include several, mostly small, items that are consistent with the council’s recommendations, but currently avail.able revenues sharply limit further progress on the council agenda.”

What’s notable is the report’s three main pillars — establish Michi.gan as the innovation hub of the Midwest (it already is), build a lifelong education system (utilizing K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities), and create thriving communities that are magnets for young talent — are largely in place. What’s missing is a governor who can bring business, community, and municipal leaders together to effect positive change.

EDUCATION

LEFT BEHIND

MICHIGAN HAS TWO ELEPHANTS in the room that no one seems to address when it comes to providing a world-class education for K-12 students: teacher unions and public schools. While every school, whether public or private, has its challenges, the recent report by the Grow Michigan Together Council states “our education system is leaving the next generation of Michiganders behind.”

Of particular concern is public schools, which have consistently lagged behind national student test scores. In turn, more parents are choosing to send their children to private schools. Overall, Michigan has seen a decades-long drop in enrollment at public schools, according to a December 2023 analysis by The Detroit News and the Associated Press.

Consider the data showed 10,261 more students attended a non-public school in the 2022-23 academic year, for a total of 101,237 students. The 11-percent increase comes as K-12 public school enrollment fell by 8,811 students last year. Over the last decade, public schools in Michigan have lost 131,482 students, roughly a 9-percent drop.

Given parents want their children to have the best education possible, the inability of public schools to raise test scores above the national averages gives families and corporations looking to relocate or expand their operations more reason to pass over Michigan.

INNOVATION

MAXIMIZE RESOURCES

TO MEET THE Grow Michigan Together Council’s recommendation to establish the state as the innovation hub of the Midwest, public and private leaders should work more closely together to attract and retain talent. State leaders also must reverse the Democratic-led elimination of Right to Work in Michigan.

In a state now more influenced by labor unions, companies looking to relocate to Michigan have another reason to look elsewhere. Established businesses also have a greater incentive to leave. Until Right to Work can be reversed, whether by legislative action or a ballot proposal, Michigan already has some assets to help grow the overall workforce.

In its report, the council called for creating regional business innovation hubs, but many already exist at colleges and universities — such as TechTown Detroit at Wayne State University and OU INC at Oakland University in Rochester Hills — while the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has more than 15 programs and centers in entrepreneurship and 30-plus entrepreneurial student organizations.

What’s needed are more resources so startups will have a better chance of success. In turn, Michigan has an abundance of public schools that can meet the council’s goal of “creating a seamless lifelong learning system.” For example, more public schools should open their doors in the evening so neighborhood residents can access certificate and degree programs.

Editor’s note: For this issue’s Commentary, DBusiness focused on the Grow Michigan Together Council, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s initiative to reverse a decades-long drop in population and overcome the state’s low national rankings since she took office.