April 4, 2008

This is Governor Jennifer Granholm. 
 
Across the country, many business leaders and economists and scientists are coming to a very important conclusion, which is, to create the workforce of the 21st century, we must begin in the earliest years of life.
 
From the day I took office, I have stressed that investment in early childhood education and care is critical for the economic viability of our state.
 
In 2005, I created the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, also known as ECIC, to assure that every child in Michigan arrives at kindergarten healthy, safe and ready to succeed.  ECIC is working to identify ways to invest smarter in the crucial first five years of a child's life, and it's working to end the achievement gap that prevents us from realizing the potential of far too many children.  ECIC supports a network of local public-private partnerships; those are known as Great Start collaboratives.

These local partnerships do two important things.  First, they identify the needs of young children and their families at that local level, whether it is access to health care or information about where to get quality child care.  Second, they bring together business, parents, government, foundations, and others - they bring them all together to make sure those children get the services they need.  

I am so pleased to announce that the ECIC will provide 11 Great Start grants totaling $780,000 to Michigan communities, from Keweenaw County to Lenawee County, to create new Great Start collaboratives and parent coalitions.
 
Through these new local partnerships, 122,000 more young children will be part of Michigan's Great Start community.

That means that more than half of the 650,000 children under five in Michigan will now live in a community where people are working together to make sure that every child gets a Great Start in life.  And that's a great achievement, but we certainly have to do more.

And this is why I am urging the Legislature to support a budget that invests an additional $31.5 million in Great Start early childhood slots.
 
This investment will ensure that ALL Michigan's young children and families are going to be served by a Great Start collaborative and Great Start parent coalition.
 
And it will also allow more than 7,000 additional children to attend a high quality pre-school program.
 
The workforce of the future demands that we invest in our earliest learners now.  Supporting investment in early childhood is not just the right thing to do - it's the smart thing to do.
 
Thank you for listening.