GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — As students get ready to return to school, Michigan educators will be returning with a historic budget. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an education budget for 2024 that is the highest state per-student investment in the state's history.
One of the most notable expansions to that budget is for pre-K. It includes $254.6 million to expand free pre-K for up to 5,600 kids, another step in the governor's long-term plan for Pre-K for All.
Joni Bennett is a Young 5's teacher at Mary A. White Elementary School in Grand Haven. This is an alternative program to pre-K.
“It allows the children to adjust to the academic and social demands of school," Bennett said. "It's more hands-on, play-based, fun environment."
She says it gives students who aren't ready for the jump to kindergarten a chance to learn at their own pace.
“For the child, you don't want them going into an environment where they're intimidated, they feel academically behind," Bennett said.
However, not everyone has the access to that opportunity. That's why she's excited about the potential for this funding to help more students get the education they need.
"It opens up a whole new opportunity for all children to learn at their level and what they're best suited for," Bennett said.
Mary A. White principal Rachel Poel says she hasn't heard how that funding will be distributed yet. However, she's already thinking about what that would mean for the school.
“It would be the logistics piece of that, like hiring," Poel said. "Making sure we have the room, like the actual space to have preschool and hiring the staff to support it.”
The Great Start Readiness Program, Michigan's current state-funded preschool program, published its allocations for the 2023 fiscal year.
While Mary A. White staff don't know when or how much of this expanded funding will come to their school, the document shows that Ottawa County as a whole received more than $10 million in funding last year for the program.
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