Michigan preschool expansion hits a snag as some providers face funding cuts
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Loading... - Sylvie Payet
- 02 Mar 2023
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Last year, as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer touted the expansion of Michigan’s free preschool program, Beverly Hogan was among the child care providers preparing to open new classrooms.
Now Whitmer has announced an even more ambitious expansion of the Great Start Readiness Program, but Hogan had to close her new classroom in February, laying off two teachers and forcing families to search for another option for their 4-year-olds deep into the school year.
The problem? Hogan couldn’t find enough kids.
Only eight students were enrolled in a classroom designed for 16. At the same time, the state ended a pandemic-era policy of paying providers based on their classroom capacity, even if fewer were enrolled. So Hogan would be paid only for children who were actually enrolled, meaning she would lose half of her funding for the classroom this year, or $74,000.
The expansion is “taking away from our business,” said Hogan, director of Busy Minds Child Care Center in Detroit. “I feel they could have waited” to shift back to enrollment-based funding.
Low enrollment might seem like a counterintuitive challenge for a state that researchers say is in the grips of a full-blown child care crisis. Whitmer built her case for GSRP expansion on the premise that tens of thousands of newly eligible middle-income families would jump at the opportunity to enroll their 4-year-olds in free preschool, and that improvements to the program would entice already-eligible low-income families to join.
Indeed, GSRP enrollment grew statewide this year. And in Wayne County, enrollment rose 17% between 2019 and 2023, from 7,468 to 8,777, according to preliminary data shared by county officials.
But Hogan is not alone in struggling to hit enrollment targets, according to providers and early education experts in the Detroit area, who point to a number of reasons. They speculate that some new classrooms opened in areas where demand for GSRP was already met. At the same time, not enough newly eligible families know about the program. And a significant segment of families simply aren’t ready to join GSRP, because the program runs four days a week and only during the school year, leaving gaps in care.
These may ultimately prove to be manageable hurdles on the path to Whitmer’s ambitious preschool expansion goals. Indeed, Whitmer’s budget proposal includes substantial new funding for GSRP, including dollars specifically for publicity and for programming five days a week. Read More…
