Background Issues

Early childhood programs not only have an immediate impact by ensuring that children are "school ready," pre-school attendance predicts students' chances to be retained a grade, to graduate high school, increase their earning power, and even avoid prison (Reynolds, 2004; High/Scope, 2005). Unfortunately, many Michigan families are unable to find affordable, high quality early childhood programs for their children. We need to increase early childhood education funding to ensure access to support services and quality programming.

What We Need

Universal Early Childhood Education: Michigan currently has two main early learning programs: Head Start (federally funded) and MSRP (state funded). While these programs reach some children, we need to expand programming throughout the state. All children, regardless of their families' financial standing, deserve access to high quality pre-school.

Mandatory Full-Day Kindergarten: It is important that students do not fall behind in their early years. Michigan should require and fund full-day kindergarten for all children.

Quality Staff: Our early learners deserve high quality early childhood staff that is skilled, competent, consistent, caring and adequately paid. The impact of pre-school is connected to its quality and amount of personal interaction, making a highly qualified early childhood workforce extremely important.

Well-Rounded and Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum: Learning experiences must be age appropriate and tailored to the individual.

1.. 2.. 3.. 4.. 5.. <<6>> 7.. 8.. 9.. 10.. 11.. 12.. 13