Contrary to Popular Belief ...
The work of Mackinac Center analysts has provided information to challenge conventional wisdom on several points, and Michigan newspapers have taken note.
The Grand Rapids Press picked up on Michael Van Beek's work taking down the claim that public schools are underfunded, part of Van Beek's "Debunking School Funding Myths" series. The Press article quotes Van Beek saying "The real reason for school money troubles is not 'underfunding,' but a failure to contain employee costs that comprise about 80 percent of operational budgets."
Also, a column in the Lansing State Journal about the East Lansing School District's teacher contract used statistics from Michael Van Beek's East Lansing Teacher Contract Summary to highlight how costly the district's union benefits are.
Fiscal Policy Analyst James Hohman's findings about public vs. private employment in Michigan caught the eye of the Flint Journal staff. Notably, Hohman discovered that "Since the beginning of the national recession in December 2007, Michigan's private sector has lost 70 times more jobs than its government sector."
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