GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Major shakeups could be coming to your child's education, following Governor Gretchen Whitmer's executive order establishing new department: the Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential (MiLEAP).
"I've already had the opportunity to speak with a few partner agencies, some childcare centers here in the Grand Rapids area, some of my colleagues and friends in the higher [education] space, and everybody is excited about this," former educator and House Higher Education Committee Chair Carol Glanville (D - Walker) said.
MiLEAP will be comprised of three offices, led by a director who will be appointed by the governor.
The Office Early Childhood Education and the Office of Higher Education, proponents say, will focus on constructing ideas and facilitating opportunities outside K-12 education to both prepare children for kindergarten as well as prepare young adults for careers beyond the classroom.
“For too long, we have thought of education as K-12, but we know that’s not good enough," Whitmer said in a statement released after signing the order. "I’m establishing MiLEAP today because we need to get every kid started early, in pre-K, so they succeed in kindergarten, have paths after graduation to get higher education tuition-free, and forge strong partnerships with our employers so they can get a good-paying, high-skill, and in-demand job."
Alongside those offices, the new Office of Education Partnerships, Glanville said, will aim to prepare K-12 students for the future.
"The goal of that is to come in and work with kiddos at before and after school programs, so that they're getting those kinds of experiences, even at a younger age," Glanville said.
"Really just getting an idea of what, you know, what do different jobs look like, you know, maybe some ride-alongs or some job shadowing, or people coming in to demonstrate the work that they do," Glanville said.
In addition to the three new offices under its jurisdiction, MiLEAP is also set to absorb several other pre-existing offices and programs, including the state's Office of Great Start and its Office of Sixty by 30, meant to raise the share of working-age adults in the state to 60% by 2030.
The Michigan Education Association has also thrown its weight behind the new department, hoping the consolidation of such offices and resources will make opportunities for students more accessible.
"We're hopeful that MiLEAP, it can help cut through some red tape and cut through bureaucracy, and create clear pathways and clear resources for parents and students to reach," Thomas Morgan with the MEA's public affairs office said.
Others, however, see the opposite.
"More government does not fix bad government," Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R - Porter Township) said in a statement. "I believe the people of Michigan would prefer our governor focus more on ensuring children can read and less on scaling back education accountability standards and creating more government bureaucracy."
With Whitmer's executive order that created the department set to take effect on December 1, exactly what steps and plans the Department will make remains to be seen.
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