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The Michigan Talent Agenda is a statewide platform that seeks to drive public policy outcomes to develop, attract, and retain the highly-talented, highly-educated citizenry that Michigan needs to succeed in today’s knowledge economy. This requires a commitment to building the sorts of communities that mobile talent values and investing in ALL Michigan residents to insure that they are designing community-led strategies for growth and everyone is equally benefiting from it.
We can’t cut our way to prosperity!
WELCOMING TO ALL:
Talented people come from a variety of backgrounds and seek out communities that are welcoming. Successful communities have high levels of diversity in terms of race, age, gender, nation of origin, sexual orientation and gender identity. They must be safe places for BIPOC residents to live, work, and play.
LIVABLE COMMUNITIES:
Talent is attracted to high-quality metropolitan areas like Ann Arbor, San Francisco, or Austin, with strong urban cores. People want their cities to be safe and walkable with multiple modes of transit, affordable housing options, and plentiful cultural amenities.
HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION:
Adopting the talent agenda means making sustained investment in education from pre-k through higher education. State support for universities has fallen by more than 40% over the past decade making college unaffordable for many of Michigan’s students at a time when
a college education has become a necessity in today’s global marketplace.
HELPING ENTREPRENEURS SUCCEED:
For too long, economic development in Michigan has focused almost exclusively on large-scale manufacturing and big box retail at the expense of the smaller, nimbler, more entrepreneurial outfits that create sustainable economies. Investing in small businesses and entrepreneurs strengthens both local economies and local communities. We must remove barriers for BIPOC entrepreneurs to open businesses, breaking cycles of intergenerational poverty and generating wealth.
