On Thursday, February 9th, Governor Rick Snyder accompanied by Lt. Governor Brian Calley and Budget Director John Nixon presented the 2013 Michigan budget and accompanying explanations, recommendations, and legislation to the Legislature. Here are a few key excerpts of that budget and reactions from early childhood advocates from across the state:
K-12 and Beyond Shift from viewing different levels of education as separate stages to viewing them as a part of an integrated system, beginning with early childhood education all the way through the completion of an advanced degree or career training.
Healthy Kids Dental Expand to include all 83 counties to improve preventive care and decrease visits to emergency rooms for dental problems. A total of $425 million in both 2013 and 2014 is proposed for a phased –in expansion of the Healthy Kids Dental program so that coverage will be available for all children receiving Medicaid over the next few years.
Autism Total of $34.1 million to provide expanded autism coverage for children eligible for Medicaid and MIChild.
Infant Mortality Increase funding for infant mortality reduction and 4x4 Wellness, with $4 million in one-time funding, and $1 million in ongoing funding.
Capitol Corner For a detailed explanation of early childhood in the 2013 budget, watch this week's Capitol Corner featuring Matt Gillard and Jeff Timmer.
reACT
Lew Chamberlin, honorary chairman, Michigan Sandbox Party CEO, West Michigan Whitecaps I am pleased that Governor Snyder’s budget reflects his continued interest in early childhood. I’m particularly happy about his support of the supplemental bill, for the current year’s budget, which provides funding for kindergarten readiness assessment. I work at the local level where we’ve been trying to share best practices with other Great Start collaboratives, especially in relation to work I’m doing with workforce development. The idea of developing one standard tool for kindergarten readiness that we can all use is key to that. I’m really glad we seem to be moving ahead to get that done.
Timothy J. Bartik, senior economist W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research The Governor’s commitment in the FY 2013 budget to continuing current funding levels for preschool and other early childhood programs is welcome. The 2012 supplemental funding provided for kindergarten readiness assessments, and quality rating and improvement systems for early childhood programs, will help create an infrastructure for improving and assessing our early childhood efforts.
It is unfortunate that it is proposed to fund these improvements in early childhood programs from the School Aid Fund, as the benefits from improving early childhood programs will accrue to the Michigan economy as a whole, and to all aspects of the state’s budget. For example, improving early childhood programs will in the long-run increase tax revenue to the general fund, and lower crime, which will help the corrections budget. Early childhood programs will help the K-12 system as well, but the benefits are much broader, which justifies broad support for such programs from the General Fund.
It should also be pointed out that while this budget maintains Michigan’s funding for early childhood programs, it maintains these programs at a level below that of the leading states, and behind the average state. For example, the latest nationally comparable figures show that Michigan currently has about 16 percent of all 4 year olds in state-funded preschool programs, compared to over 70 percent in Oklahoma, and 27 percent in the average state.
Improving early childhood program quality is key. It is good that the Supplemental Budget invests in measures that in the long-run will help improve quality. The Great Start office that is maintained by this budget will also help improve quality.
However, in the long-run, to achieve large state-wide economic impact from early childhood programs, we also need to be concerned about the scale of early childhood programs. High-quality programs must be of sufficiently large scale, by involving a large percentage of Michigan’s children, if we are going to truly transform our future labor force by these investments. The decision to invest in a needed large-scale expansion of early childhood programs is not made in this budget. At some point, if Michigan leaders want strong economic results from early childhood programs, we will need to make the needed investments to reach many more children with high-quality early childhood programs.
Ella Fabel Ryder, executive director Great Start Regional Child Care Resource Center in Kalamazoo It is very exciting to read the governor’s budget address today. It shows his strong understanding of the importance of education and particularly early childhood efforts through the Great Start to Readiness Programs, the Great Start Collaboratives and Great Parents, Great Start, as well as the Office of Great Start.
As a long-time child care professional, however, it is very gratifying and heartwarming to see his commitment to increasing the quality of early learning and development programs through a $12.5 million commitment to the Great Start to Quality System and for a uniform kindergarten assessment program. These two programs will work hand in hand, first to improve the quality of our pre- K care and education programs and then showing the results of this quality improvement by assessing children as they enter kindergarten. It is a good day for young children in this state.
Pam Smith, program director Great Start Southeast Regional Child Care Resource Center I believe Governor Snyder's description of the budget as 'the platform for creating an environment conducive to job growth, protecting our most vulnerable residents and ensuring that our children have bright futures with boundless opportunities' indicates vigorous support for the Office of Great Start. He created this office soon after his election as a way to bring the educational needs of our youngest citizens into the spotlight.
More of Michigan's children are living in poverty and we need to focus our supports and services on helping the children with the highest needs in the future that Governor Snyder refers to.
Turning to Budget Director John Nixon's comment, "We were able to develop this budget focused on making strategic investments in our future," my sincere hope is that they recognize early child care and education as a vital component of that 'strategic investment.
Be a part of the conversation - just click on the words "Add New Comment" below to leave your thoughts on the Governor's proposed budget or email us your statement at info@michigansandboxparty.org.
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