Community input session discusses pre-K expansion in Detroit
(CBS DETROIT) - Tuesday night, community feedback was the goal of an input session regarding Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's "Pre-K for All" goal.
In January, Whitmer outlined her intentions of universal pre-K for all Michigan 4-year old's by 2027.
"This is the goal, but how are we going to reach that goal?" says Sara Pitchford, the mother of a 4-year-old and 5-year-old readying to begin their schooling careers.
"During COVID, we kind of figured out like what our priorities are very quickly. Like health education, childcare, those things that we like, skating by before we started to see the big holes in the system," Pitchford says while laying out just a few of her personal priorities in schools as a parent.
During the community input session, hosted by early childhood development groups Hope Starts Here and the Policy Equity Group, an outline of Michigan's "Pre-K for All" implementation plan was discussed among the groups and community members.
"To actually have that available to all families in Michigan, it's really important to hear from them how that is going to be delivered," says Denise Smith, implementation director of Hope Starts Here Detroit.
Smith says the expansion of the Michigan Great Start Readiness Program that Whitmer discussed in her State of the State address, starts with the community here in Detroit. It's why she says holding this input session was important for all groups involved.
"This is a community that's been under-resourced for a long time. Historically represented by Black and Brown children and families who have not been able to compete at the same levels of our more fluent communities or better-resourced communities. This is really acknowledging that they are equally important in the decision-making," says Smith.
"I think that people that live the experience and have kids here and they live in Detroit, they send their kids to Detroit. Like those are the people that I want to hear from and learn from and really take what they're saying and make it work," Pitchford says.