Ford School Public Events

For-profit colleges are under fire. Critics point to students' low earnings and high debt loads as evidence that these schools do not provide a quality education. Defenders of the sector note that the schools serve a population of low-skilled, low-income students that traditional colleges ignore. Congress is now considering legislation that would bar from the federal aid programs any schools whose graduates' earnings fall below a minimum threshold. This panel promises to be a lively discussion of an important topic in public policy.

PANELISTS:
Susan Dynarski
Associate Professor of Education, School of Education; Associate Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Michael Flanagan
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michigan Department of Education

Brian Rowan
Burke A. Hinsdale Collegiate Professor, School of Education; Research Professor, Institute for Social Research

Tyrone Winfrey
Director, U-M Office of Undergraduate Admissions - Detroit Admissions Office and Vice-President, Detroit Board of Education

Deborah Loewenberg Ball
Dean of the School of Education, will be moderating the panel discussion

This community-wide event is co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, CLOSUP, the Institute for Social Research, the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, and the School of Education.

Abstract: This paper shows that the mortgage credit boom has significantly affected urban and school racial segregation from 1995 to 2007. We develop a model of urban segregation with credit constraints that shows that easier credit can either increase or decrease segregation, depending on the race of the marginal consumer who benefits from the expansion of credit. We then use school demographics from 1995 to 2007, matched to a national comprehensive dataset of mortgage originations, to document the link between credit supply and schools' racial demographics. Effects are large and significant.

Free and open to the public.

Panelists:
John Bebow - The Center for Michigan

Lynn Jondahl - Michigan Prospect

Michael Van Beek - Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Organized by: Chuck Wilbur

Sponsored by: the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP); the Ford School of Public Policy; and the Association for Public Policy About Learning and Education (APPLE)

For more information: 734-647-4091

Matthew Springer, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education, Director of the National Center on Performance Incentives Vanderbilt University.

Free and open to the public.

Bill Ballenger - Editor and Publisher, Inside Michigan Politics

Organized by: Chuck Wilbur

Sponsored by: the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP); the Ford School of Public Policy; and the Association for Public Policy About Learning and Education (APPLE)

For more information: 734-647-4091

'Winter Heating or Clean Air? Unintended Impacts of China's Huai River Policy.' Avraham Ebenstein, Hebrew University

It is stunningly difficult to transform the way a state government carries out a major function, but that is precisely what the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative (MPRI) has set out to do. The MPRI is an ambitious effort to improve public safety by reducing the likelihood that prisoners returning to communities will commit crimes. Based on two decades of national research, it focuses on identifying prisoner characteristics that predict recidivism and then addressing those risks both during and after incarceration. The initiative is transforming the Michigan Department of Corrections and the way in which it connects with communities. Widely regarded as one of the most effective reentry initiatives in the country, the MPRI is entering its seventh year of development and implementation and is operating statewide.

Free and open to the public.

Panelists:
Thomas Buchmueller, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business
John J. H. (Joe) Schwarz, Former U.S. Representative and Visiting Lecturer, University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Marianne Udow-Phillips, Director, Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation (CHRT), located at the University of Michigan

Sponsored by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues, and his work has frequently entered into the design of both national and international educational policy. His research includes the impacts of teacher quality, high stakes accountability, and class size reduction on achievement and the role of cognitive skills in international growth and development. His pioneering analysis measuring teacher quality through student achievement forms the basis for current research into the value-added of teachers and schools.

Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ), which combines community investments with reform minded charter schools, is one of the most ambitious social experiments to alleviate poverty of our time. This presentation will discuss the first empirical test of the causal impact of HCZ on educational outcomes, with an eye toward informing the long-standing debate whether schools alone can eliminate the achievement gap or whether the issues that poor children bring to school are too much for educators alone to overcome. Both lottery and instrumental variable identification strategies led to the same story: Harlem Children's Zone is effective at increasing the achievement of the poorest minority children. Taken at face value, the effects in middle school are enough to close the black-white achievement gap in mathematics and reduce it by nearly half in English Language Arts. The effects in elementary school close the racial achievement gap in both subjects. The research demonstrates four pieces of evidence that high-quality schools or high-quality schools coupled with community investments generate the achievement gains. Community investments alone cannot explain the results.