January 26, 2023

Michigan’s Children To Benefit from Governor Whitmer’s Education Proposals

Michigan Department of Education Press Release LANSING – State Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice praised the education proposals outlined by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in yesterday’s 2023 State of the State address. 

Governor Whitmer delivered her annual address Wednesday evening at the State Capitol in front of a joint session of the state legislature and a statewide television audience. 

“Michigan’s children need what Governor Whitmer laid out last night—universal pre-kindergarten education, tutoring for those who are behind, after-school programs, safer school communities, and commonsense gun laws to help prevent tragedies like what occurred at Oxford High School,” Dr. Rice said. “These proposals align with goals set in Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan to help kids achieve and be successful. 

“In the State of the State address, the governor supported goals 1 and 2 of the Top 10 Strategic Education plan to expand the Great Start Readiness Program pre-school to all children and to improve early literacy,” Dr. Rice said. “The governor’s focus on early childhood education for all and tutoring for those who have struggled coming out of the pandemic help address our developmental upstream goals of early childhood and early literacy. 

“The research is clear—to add a year of high-quality pre-school and to provide literacy and other supports early help improve educational and life outcomes,” he added. 

Universal pre-kindergarten through the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) would ensure that all four-year-old children in Michigan get a great start in school. 

The governor also called for the MI Kids Back on Track initiative to provide 1-on-1 tutoring to those children who are struggling academically, personalized learning support to get them back on track for long-term success. Investing in tutoring, after-school programs, and other learning supports gets children 1-on-1 time with a caring, qualified educator that they need to succeed, the governor noted in her speech. 

Safer schools and communities were also a focus in the governor’s State of the State address with a call for greater investments in public safety and commonsense gun laws, the passage of which the State Board of Education urged in a resolution to the legislature last fall. 

Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan was approved by the State Board of Education in August 2020 with input from more than 10,000 Michiganders.