Michigan pushes $762M pre-K expansion while K-12 performance declines

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist recently used a statement to celebrate the goal of expanding no-fee prekindergarten. But studies have failed to turn up evidence that early education programs produce better results for students.

“This is about investing in our kids’ futures, and we will continue collaborating with all partners to make sure every Michigan family has access to high-quality early education, no matter where they live,” Gilchrist said in the press release.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced in 2023 that she aims to enroll 75% of the state’s four-year-olds in preschool by 2027.

In the 2026 budget, Whitmer wants $676 million to fund no-fee preschool for four-year-olds and $61 million to continue and expand a pilot program to offer no-fee preschool to eligible three-year-olds.

Early education programs aim to give children an academic head start. But there is little evidence for any long-term benefits from the state’s taxpayer-funded preschool initiatives, according to Corey DeAngelis, visiting fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.

“We shouldn’t expect tacking on one more year to a broken government school system to fix anything,” DeAngelis wrote in an email to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

DeAngelis has lobbied states to pass laws that ensure per-pupil funding follows the student rather than remain in the public schoo system.

“The latest gold-standard evaluation of a statewide preschool program” shows that children who attended pre-K schools through a lottery system in Tennessee had lower state achievement test scores in third through sixth grades than children in a control group.

He added that the study controlled for variables in students’ background, which suggests that the outcomes are caused by the preschool intervention itself.

Early education can worsen outcomes, according to a blog post by Molly Macek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Macek analyzed a longitudinal study on the Tennessee early education initiative. That study found that any positive effects noted during prekindergarten had reversed and turned to negatives by the beginning of second or third grade.

The recent studies support the findings of research showing similar outcomes going as far back as 1969.

The state’s recent report card on K-12 public schools shows that students performed worse than in previous years.

Michigan fourth graders fell to 44th place nationally in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Students scored an average scale score of 263 in 2019, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. That figure dropped to 259 in 2022 and 255 in 2024.

Michigan lawmakers should focus on boosting academic outcomes instead of providing universal pre-K, Aaron Garth Smith, director of education reform at the Reason Foundation, said in an email to CapCon.

“At a time when nearly half of Michigan fourth graders are scoring below basic on NAEP reading, policymakers should be focused on proven strategies for boosting outcomes,” Smith wrote.

He used Louisiana as an example and explained that it has made strides in early literacy by adopting classroom practices that align with the science of reading.

CapCon reported in 2013 that five studies by the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and researchers at The Ohio State University showed little to no academic gain from early education.