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Superintendent: School Funding Reform Should Include Early Childhood, College

WKAR file photo

The state’s education chief says money for early childhood education and community colleges needs to be part of fixing Michigan’s school funding system.

Mike Flanagan is the Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction and leads the state Department of Education.

He spoke Tuesday at the first public hearing held by Governor Rick Snyder’s workgroup that’s devising a school funding proposal. The governor wants a system that rewards proficiency.

Flanagan says that won’t happen if the state doesn’t find a way to offer universal early childhood learning.

“We spend $ 1 billion per grade and we spend nothing on early childhood and we wonder why the results are exactly the same and we blame the teachers, we blame the state superintendent, we blame the parent for not reading to them enough and the bottom line is we should blame the system first and foremost,” he says.

Flanagan says every student should also be guaranteed a year or two of community college or its equivalent. 

The school funding workgroup will spend the summer working n its recommendations.

Rick Pluta is Senior Capitol Correspondent for the Michigan Public Radio Network. He has been covering Michigan’s Capitol, government, and politics since 1987. His journalism background includes stints with UPI, The Elizabeth (NJ) Daily Journal, The (Pontiac, MI) Oakland Press, and WJR. He is also a lifelong public radio listener.
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