Sporting events o er new ways to lead

Downtown Detroit will shine on the national sports stage early next month, and eyes will be watching in anticipation of an even bigger event just under a year away.

e Detroit Grand Prix will return to downtown streets for the rst time since moving to Belle Isle almost 30 years ago. And in April 2024, the NFL Draft will take place in Detroit for the rst time ever.

e draft is now much, much more than a group of men sitting in a room, reading names and marking o draft boards. It’s a certi able fan experience and tourist destination. is year’s draft in Kansas City, Mo., drew more than 300,000 people.

Add in the massive television audience for the draft and the endless associated programming, and it’s an opportunity for Detroit to show o that’s almost as big as a Super Bowl, which holds an important place in the history of the city’s downtown rebirth.

e Super Bowl in 2006 — and especially the preparations for it in the four years after Ford Field opened — galvanized the business community, and the hands-on leadership and energy of automotive titan Roger Penske in chairing the Super Bowl’s host committee was key to that success.

A run-up to the Super Bowl included a massive beauti cation e ort for downtown Detroit that included the debut of Campus Martius Park and, to be frank, e orts to camou age empty storefronts and o ces.

We have a lot more to show o now.

As Penske told Crain’s in 2015: “ e galvanizing piece of this was to take the civic leaders, the business community, the foundations, the mayor and city council and pull them together.” e speed with which people like Penske Corp.’s Bud Denker and other o cials have put together the downtown Grand Prix is impressive and shows what can be done.

Penske also made the point at the time that big, recurring annual events like the auto show, jazz festival (or, now, the Rocket Mortgage Classic) are more important than big one-o s like a Super Bowl or Final Four. at may be true. But the big moon-shot events can also catalyze new ways of thinking and new ways of doing business that can last.

It’s not an overstatement to say that the Super Bowl did catalyze cooperation among Detroit’s silos of power in a city where such cooperation wasn’t always apparent.

Now downtown Detroit has much to show o , but leadership — and cooperation — among business and civic leaders and city government will be key for the city to reap the bene ts of the draft.

Detroit’s on the clock. It’s time to pick up the ball and run.

Michigan has a lot of good adult education providers, but they are being held back by inadequate funding, insufficient outcome measures and minimal support for providers and learners. Our state is missing a talent opportunity by failing to invest in this population the way it has put a priority on higher education.

TalentFirst’s new report, “Restoring the Promise of Adult Education in Michigan,” designed and conducted by Public Policy Associates, has led us to a set of strategic recommendations to reverse these shortcomings.

Funding is part of the problem. State spending, the largest source of adult education funding, fell 68% between 2001 and 2021. An increase in the 2023 budget eased that decline but the total today still is 44% less than in 2001. Even so, the state’s investment in adult foundational education amounts to $0.01 for every $1.00 spent on higher education. The result is a system that can serve only a fraction of the potential learners and that employs mostly parttime and underpaid instructors. Those deemed “too difficult to serve” are getting left behind, and this population is only growing.

But that’s not the only explanation for weaknesses in the state’s strategy. We also found that adult education has been overlooked as the poor relative of education and workforce programming. Adult learners also face a wide range of barriers to accessing and completing programs. State funding is only accessible to a small subset of providers operating within the K-12 sys-

The good news: Michigan can emerge as a leader in preparing all adults to succeed in the knowledge-driven economy. This begins by taking a hard look at practical, actionable and measurable solutions to the problems. Our report proposes three five-year objectives:

 Triple enrollment, which currently only serves 3.6% of the need.

 Double completion rates from 39.9% to 80%.

 Eliminate the gap in outcomes for people of color and English language learners.

The report details 21 research-based strategies to achieve these objectives, including elevating adult education as part of a coordinated talent development system, increasing state funding, and providing more support for providers and students alike.

It’s critical that our state examine reforms to this system. We cannot afford to overlook the adults who require basic education, English language acquisition, remediation, and high school completion or equivalency. Ignoring this need hurts Michigan’s longterm competitiveness, but it also takes a personal toll on families.

Every adult in Michigan also has a right to develop the foundational and occupational skills necessary to access health care, manage their finances, engage in the community, navigate social services, and support their children. What’s more, adult foundational education can open the door to employment, postsecondary education and career advancement.