Education

New college program trains clean energy technicians

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING – Alpena Community College is developing a bachelor’s degree in electrical systems technology. Jay Walterreit, director of public information and marketing at Alpena, said the community college is hoping to have the program running by August 2016. The “rigorous” program’s curriculum is awaiting accreditation. Unlike the other energy technician programs available at Alpena, the program will qualify a student with a bachelor’s degree. Walterreit said that there would not be much overlap between existing programs and the new program, except a few prerequisites.

Agriculture

New grants will promote animal wellbeing

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING – Kittens, puppies and grants, oh my! The selection process for 2015 grant recipients of the Michigan Animal Welfare Fund has begun. “We’ve received at least 65 proposals,” said Debbie Mulvaney, who oversees the selection process for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. “There are some great ideas turned in, so we’re anxious to get started.”
Reviewing the proposals is a lengthy process, she said. “There are a lot of people with a lot of needs.”

The recipients will be selected by Dec.

Education

Community college online classes soon available statewide

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING — The Michigan Community College Association, or MCCA, is working on a system that will give people students in remote areas of Michigan access to all online online courses available at community colleges in the state. Residents in sprawling Michigan’s sprawling areas, like much of the Upper Peninsula, have larger distances to travel to reach a community college’s campus. “Fifty percent of the land mass in Michigan is not in a community college district—that means within 30 to 40 miles,” Michael Hansen, president of the MCCA, said. According to Connect Michigan Inc., a non-profit dedicated to increasing Internet quality and access for residents in rural areas, 643,000 households are either without access to broadband Internet services or with access to slower upload speeds. However, since 2011, there has been a 60 percent increase in access to broadband Internet that has a minimum download speed of 100 megabits per second.

Education

State, schools reduce special ed teacher shortage

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING – As the Michigan Consortium for Teacher Endorsement for Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Visually Impairment gains interest, more teachers will be prepared for jobs in high-shortage areas. To address shortages in specific areas of special education, the Department of Education partnered with 14 colleges and universities across the state and country to create the consortium in 2012. It offers classes online and seminars for teachers to earn an additional endorsement for education students in grades K-12. The endorsement would take an average of two years to complete. The Michigan institutions participating in the consortium are Aquinas College and Saginaw Valley State University in the field of deaf/hard of hearing and Western Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University in the field of blind/visual impairment.

Elections & Politics

Pay equity commission stuck in committee

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING – A bill to create a commission on pay equity is stalled in the House Government Operations Committee, but it might get a chance in December. The Commission on Pay Equity, as it would be known, would “develop definitions of comparable wages, using the criteria of composite skills, responsibility, effort, education or training, and working conditions,” according to the bill. Karla Swift, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, said she would like to see the bill passed in the lame-duck session in December. Reps. Dian Slavens, D-Canton, and Marcia Hovey-Wright, D-Muskegon, along with about thirty other representatives, sponsored the bill.

Education

Too many teachers? Not enough? Both

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING – The Department of Education is working on solutions to Michigan’s teacher shortage. A number of factors led to the K-12 education system shortage, the state superintendent of public instruction, Michael Flanagan said. These include the poor economy and recent graduates leaving to teach out of state, but what some people may not consider is that college students are learning to teach in subjects that don’t need more teachers. “There are 32 teacher prep programs in Michigan,” Flanagan said. “It’s important that those schools give sound career guidance.

Elections & Politics

Tis the season to be wary — of polls

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING — Voters should cast a critical eye at polls before accepting their findings as truth, experts say. Jeff Williams, chief executive officer of Public Sector Consultants, warns the public and media alike to be critical of polls this election season and the way they’re represented in the press. Public Sector Consultants is a private research and polling company based in Lansing. Erika King, a professor of political science at Grand Valley State University, stressed the importance of knowing the source of a poll. She advised voters to look closely at what information is being provided, how the poll was taken, the kind of people being surveyed and how they were selected.

Agriculture

A shortage of labor is forcing farmers to face tough decisions about next year's peach crops

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING – A shortage of labor is forcing farmers face tough decisions about next year’s peach crops. Jamie Clover Adams, director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that some peach and asparagus farmers are resorting to ripping their crops out of the fields to replace them with crops that are easier to harvest, like cherries, which can be gathered by machine. “We’re seeing the number of peach trees go down,” Clover Adams said, “because there just isn’t enough labor.”
Arthur Lister of Lister Orchards in Ludington grows clingstone peaches, the variety used for processing. He has had a typical experience with his peaches this year: no labor to help harvest. “We have enough market uncertainty, like any business,” Lister said.

Government

The rhyme's the thing — official state poem proposed

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan could be the sixth state to adopt an official poem. Written by Millie “the Chiseler” Miller, “Hand of Michigan” is short and sweet, referencing much of Michigan’s majestic Mother Nature. “God knitted a mitten of wood, rock and lime,
Made a foundation to last through all time. He planted his palm with Hemlock and pine,
Then blessed it with rain and sunshine. In all the world there’s no other land
That God himself patterned from his own hand!

Diversity Issues

No immediate action planned on sexual orientation bill

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By JORDAN BRADLEY
Capital News Service
LANSING—While leaders of the Republican majority in the Legislature say there will be no vote on the issue before the Nov. 3 election, Democrats have introduced a proposal to add sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. The law already applies to discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on race, religion, sex, age, marital status, height and weight. Sponsors of the Democrats’ bill include Sens. Rebekah Warren of Ann Arbor, Glenn Anderson of Westland, Steven Bieda of Warren, Virgil Smith of Detroit and Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing.