Governor Gretchen Whitmer called for a dramatic expansion of the Great Start Readiness pre-school program to cover eligible four-year olds in Michigan on Tuesday.
Statewide, about one-third of eligible kids can’t get into a Great Start program.
So the proposal was welcome news to Tami Mannes, the director of early childhood programs with the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District.
“Preschool can be a significant expense for families. So, this allows working families the opportunity to get a high-quality pre-school experience for little to no cost.”
For the first three years, the $405 million-dollar cost of the expansion would be paid with a combination of state and federal funds. Then it would have to be entirely funded by the state.
But there does appear to bipartisan support for the expansion in the Republican-controlled Legislature.