September 30, 2003

LANSING – At a conference of education professionals in Lansing, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today spoke about her administration’s plan to ensure that every child in Michigan is prepared to succeed in school and beyond.

"Education does not start on Monday morning when the eight o’clock bell rings, and it does not end when our children get on the bus at three," said Granholm. "We must bring a holistic approach to education in Michigan. That means creating an atmosphere that breeds success in school, out of school, and in the critical years before a child ever enters a classroom."

Governor Granholm’s remarks today echoed the message she delivered in her State of the State address this past February – we must educate parents on the importance of education that starts at birth and the critical act of reading to children for at least 30 minutes each day. Scientific studies point to the dramatic affect early education has on a child’s long-term ability to learn. Granholm created Project Great Start to lead Michigan’s early childhood education initiatives.

At today’s conference, Granholm outlined the following new initiatives under Project Great Start, her administration’s umbrella effort to coordinate the early childhood work of various public and private entities in Michigan:

•With the help of the Michigan Department of Education and generous contributions from the foundation community, the "Read, Educate and Develop Youth" initiative (READY) has created an expanded "READY" kit of important early literacy information for parents and caregivers. This year, the kit features health, nutrition, and development information as well as reading information and a video on the importance of early child development.

•Project Great Start has set a goal of distributing these kits to families of the approximately 130,000 children born in Michigan every year. Granholm announced that Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom, the state’s surgeon general, has developed a network of family care, pediatric, and OB/GYN physicians who have agreed to feature the materials in their offices. Thirty-three of the state’s county health departments will air the child development videos in their lobbies. The Governor also announced that the Department of Community Health has forged a partnership with the state’s Visiting Nurses Association to ensure that new parents in the state’s high-priority school districts receive an in-depth, at-home briefing on the new READY kit.

•The state has begun the process of training all state employees who deal directly with children in early brain development and the importance of early education.

•To ensure that citizens across the state see and hear messages about the importance of early reading, Granholm announced a new public service announcement which will air in the coming months, stressing the importance of reading to children from birth. The PSA was produced with the volunteer efforts of Zimmerfish Creative, Harvest Productions, and Ahptic Productions and will be seen around the state thanks to an earlier commitment from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.

•Michigan’s public television stations will begin airing a 30 minute television program statewide focused on reading to pre-school children.

•Meijer stores statewide will print the Project Great Start logo and an early reading message on all of their grocery bags.

In addition to these new initiatives, the Governor also underscored her administration’s current efforts to improve education and increase the awareness of early education’s important role in a child’s development. Granholm highlighted a number of ongoing activities recently initiated by the Children’s Action Network, the network of state agencies convened to improve services delivered to children in Michigan, including:

•The creation of 17 "Family Resource Centers," school-based resource offices staffed by Family Independence Agency personnel which are designed to provide support services to families of children in Michigan’s highest-priority schools.

•A change in daycare licensing that took effect September 1, which requires 30 minutes of early literacy activities be incorporated into all daycare activities in Michigan.

•A statewide "Michigan Reads!" program announced earlier this month by the Department of History, Arts & Libraries that will encourage all Michigan citizens to read the same early reader to a young child during the month of April.

•A new Department of Corrections effort to incorporate parenting skills training into the release program for departing prisoners with young children.

"In Michigan, we know that learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom," Granholm said. "It’s a team effort – at home, at school, and at the capitol."