Gobles is a small, rural, almost exclusively white community on the west side of the state. Beecher is an old blue-collar suburb of Flint, racially mixed and overwhelmingly poor. But the children of Gobles and Beecher do share a characteristic — one that neither wants: They can’t attend free, state-funded preschool. Across the state, there […]
Child care in Michigan
Stories about what happens to kids with care before kindergarten begins.
Posted inTalent & Education
One woman marshals a pre-K army
Maybe she just didn’t have enough experience to know better. Maybe she had a financial incentive. Whatever the reason, Natalie Merryman succeeded where a lot of school districts failed. As a first-year preschool teacher in the Great Start Readiness Program, Merryman was able to find the kind of at-risk 4-year-olds who are often forgotten in […]
Posted inTalent & Education
In Grand Rapids, a tale of two kids
Like any mother, Grand Rapids resident Courtney Malone wants the best for her children. That’s why she worries about her 3-year-old son, Bryson, who is on a waiting list for the state’s Great Start Readiness Program. She fears he could be losing ground by missing out on the all-day preschool. “It’s very disappointing,” said Malone, […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Pre-K access is a challenge across the state
In theory, children from low- and moderate-income homes have an equal opportunity for free, high-quality preschool in every corner of Michigan. But it turns out some corners are more equal than others. In Saginaw, 91 percent of 4-year-olds eligible for Great Start Readiness Program are in that state-funded preschool or another state- or federally funded […]
Posted inTalent & Education
30,000 children lose out on pre-K classes
Landen Ford wants to go to preschool. The 4-year-old Flushing boy with a crew cut and a toothy grin thought he’d learn the alphabet and his sounds, and maybe make some friends, just like his big brother Logan did last year. But instead of learning to write his name, Landen is learning an early lesson […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Michigan condemns 30,000 kids to bad start
Anybody who cares about Michigan’s future should know these facts: Children learn the quickest and best from birth to age 5. Early childhood learning programs, especially for poor, minority and vulnerable kids, result in much, much better progress through school and sharply increased graduation rates. Return on investment in pre-kindergarten programs is as high as […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Michigan has its education funding system backwards
One of the persistently enraging things about the workings of government is how often we see multiple disconnects between what we all know and what it does. Now that it’s back to school time, we can see these disconnects plainly. Example No. 1: It is beyond dispute that children learn the quickest and best from birth […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Study on Michigan early childhood efforts provides startling results
Children who attended a public pre-K school program had greater success throughout their K-12 career, including graduating at a higher rate, according to a first-of-its-kind study that followed more than 500 Michigan children for 14 years. That study, to be discussed today at a meeting of the State Board of Education, provides fuel to growing […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Businesses endorse preschool expansion
To the 100 business leaders who signed the Michigan Early Childhood Business Plan, the choice is simple: Pay a little now, or pay a lot later. And so they gathered on the porch of the Grand Hotel Wednesday at the Mackinac Policy Conference to call for publicly funded preschool for 38,000 eligible 4-year-old children currently […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Spend a little on kids now, save a lot later
Call it common sense, call it common knowledge, but now it has a number attached: $40,000. Or $100,000. The first number is the amount the state of Michigan saves on every child who arrives at kindergarten “ready to learn,” that is, with an adequate preschool or similar early-childhood experience. The six-figure sum is what the […]
