(The Center Square) – Michigan ranked in the bottom half of the country for social mobility in a recent study from the Archbridge Institute.
The nonpartisan public policy think tank published the index, “Social Mobility in the 50 States,” ranking the states from best to worst according to the primary indicators and barriers for social mobility in each state.
“The main hope for our research is that it is able to start a discussion and provide some ideas that can help policymakers improve the environment for social mobility in their own states,” President and CEO of the Archbridge Institute Gonzalo Schwarz said.
The Archbridge Institute defines social mobility as “the opportunity to better oneself and those around them.”
“There is currently no broad consensus on the main barriers or leading indicators of upward social mobility,” Schwarz told The Center Square, “so our research attempts to provide a framework and guideposts on how policymakers should think about the environment that leads to more social mobility, and what areas for improvement they have in their own states. Some of the areas and issues can be addressable through policy reform and some others just depend more on solutions that are outside the scope of traditional policy.”
Research Fellow Justin Callais and Schwarz, the authors of the report, measure social mobility according to data across four pillars: entrepreneurship and growth, institutions and the rule of law, education and skills development, and social capital.
The index includes a profile for each state with its national rank and total score, individual rankings in each of the four pillars and their subcategories, and key findings.
Michigan ranked 30th overall in the 2023 Social Mobility Index with a score of 4.81 on a 10-point scale. Michigan scored third in the East North Central Region, above Illinois and Ohio and below Wisconsin and Indiana.
The state performed best in regulation, a subcategory of the entrepreneurship and growth pillar, ranking 16th in the country. Also under entrepreneurship and growth, Michigan scored toward the median for tax policies (21st) and low in business dynamism (32nd).
Michigan scored worst in the charity subcategory of the social capital pillar (42nd).
According to Callais, the study determined the score for charity based on four indicators: the percentage of people who reported making a donation of $25 or more within the last year in 2017; the percentage who said they volunteered in the last year in 2017; the number of nonprofit organizations and religious congregations per 1,000 people; and a measure of charity regulations from the nonprofit Philanthropy Roundtable.
“For this category, Michigan scores low on the percentage of people who made a donation of $25 or more – 52% compared to 57% nationally – and the number of nonprofits and religious congregations,” Callais said.
The state also struggled in the subcategory for education quality and freedom under education and skills development, ranking 34th.
Callais said authors used four indicators to determine the score for this subcategory: test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress for fourth and eighth grade; a measure of school freedom from the Heritage Foundation’s Education Freedom report card; university quality according to data from the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity; and community college graduation rates in the state.
“Within these categories, Michigan scores low on NAEP test scores, school freedom, and community college graduation rates,” Callais said. “Michigan has a community college graduate rate of only 22.5% – compared to the U.S. average of about 38% – while it scores quite well for 4-year university quality.”
According to the report, policymakers in Michigan should consider reform across all four pillars to increase social mobility.
Callais said Michigan should pay particular attention to its education policy.
“In regards to policy recommendations, we do think it’s interesting for Michigan to consider what makes their 4-year degree program relatively successful but is not leading to success in their community college programs,” Callais said.
