The Detroit Free Press called on state lawmakers to fully fund the Great Start Readiness Program, which provides preschool for 47,000 at-risk 4-year-old children statewide.

Here is the full text of the editorial that ran in the Detroit Free Press on September 26, 2011:

Editorial: Fight childhood poverty by fully funding Great Start program

Rising poverty, coupled with the state’s changing demographics, poses a daunting challenge for public policy and Michigan’s future. Michigan’s population is becoming more diverse, with whites expected to become the state’s largest minority group in just over 30 years.

Unless politicians and policymakers invest more in children’s programs that alleviate racial inequities in education and health care, Michigan will become poorer, less educated and increasingly uncompetitive.

Michigan’s poverty rate in 2010 — 16.8% of state residents — was the highest in at least four decades. The state’s child poverty rate rose to 23.5%, including an unconscionable 53.6% in Detroit, according to the 2010 American Community Survey.

Young people represent Michigan’s future, and children of color now make up nearly a third of Michigan’s children. The number of

Latino children grew nearly 40% over the last decade. By 2042, people of color will make up a majority of the state’s population; by 2028, they will exceed whites among 18- to 29-year-olds.

More than half of African-American children and 44% of Latino children under 5 live in poverty, compared to 19% for white children, according to a new report from Michigan’s Children, “Michigan’s Changing Demographics and the Future.”

Michigan’s increase in child poverty over the last decade was three times the national average — with far-reaching consequences, especially for Latino and African-American children. White children visit the doctor twice as often as children of color, and African-American babies born in Michigan are three times more likely to die before their first birthday. African-American and Latino youths are more than twice as likely as white students to drop out of school.

Many poor children enter school so far behind their more affluent peers that they never catch up. Attending a preschool program can help close the gap. Early childhood and preschool programs are especially important, given that researchers can spot achievement gaps emerging in children as young as 9 months old. Children who don’t read proficiently at the end of third grade are four times more likely to fail to graduate from high school on time.

“With … limited resources, we must invest wisely and put the money where it will have the greatest impact,” said Jack Kresnak, president and CEO of Michigan’s Children.

Income support and job training for low-income families broaden the educational opportunities, and aspirations, of children. Better access to health care for young mothers alleviates infant mortality and low birth weights.

But the most effective childhood education program is not reaching nearly half of those eligible. Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program, a full- or half-day preschool program for more than 47,000 at-risk 4-year-olds, improves school readiness, raises reading scores and boosts high school graduation rates.

The program receives $3,400 per pupil in state funding but provides a high return on investment, eventually saving hundreds of millions of dollars in spending on special education, corrections, health care, welfare and other programs. For example, one in 10 Michigan children must repeat kindergarten, costing the state an average of $100 million a year.

Graduates of the Great Start Readiness Program are 85% more likely to finish high school on time. They are also less likely to go to prison, where they would cost taxpayers $35,000 a year each.

Even so, insufficient state funding will keep many eligible at-risk children from enrolling in the Great Start Readiness Program — about 40,000 children in the upcoming school year. Fully funding programs that improve education outcomes for low-income students is the most direct and cost-effective way to reduce Michigan’s growing poverty rate, while ensuring a better educated and more competitive state for all.