Last year, Ann Arbor was voted the best-place to live in the United States by Livability.com. Surely, the presence of great bars and restaurants, the highly educated population, and the miles of green space in our community played a role in this distinction; however, much of the appeal was also credited to the widely acclaimed Ann Arbor School District. “The school district serves more than 17,000 students and maintains an impressive 17:1 student-to-teacher ratio,” the website boasts. It’s little wonder why people want to raise their kids here: the children in our community are set up for success in their educational-career and beyond. While our K-12 system is unparalleled and certainly deserved the praise, we are still failing our youngest residents — preschool aged children — in other, more subdued, ways.
Currently, the state of Michigan — let alone the city of Ann Arbor — does not offer universal preschool programs for the numerous young children who call Ann Arbor home. As a result, children who aren’t enrolled in preschool are not realizing the widespread benefits that accompany these programs. According to EdSource.com, children who attend preschool tend to have higher future incomes, higher graduation levels, and lower rates of crime than those who do not. Furthermore, these results are even more amplified for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Consequently, implementing universal preschool programs would offer a way to level the playing field for families in our community from lower SES backgrounds. Parents are free to work instead of watch after their children, and, in turn, children are trained to become stronger thinkers. The benefits are countless; however, we still don’t have a proposal from our elected representatives.
Given the benefits outlined above — which represent a fraction of the actual returns we’d realize if preschool was provided for every child in our community — it’s a bit surprising that universal preschool is not available to the toddlers who call Ann Arbor home. Currently, only four states offer truly universal preschool — that is, preschool where every child in the state, regardless of their family background, is eligible to enroll. Notably missing from these four states is Michigan. Conversely, the state of Michigan runs the Great Start Program. The purpose of this program is ambitious: to provide preschool for low-income children across Michigan. In theory, this is a noble goal. When I came upon it, it finally felt like our Republican-led state congress was moving to actually look after our state’s most vulnerable population. However, after diving deeper into it, I learned that the Great Start Program has been victim of a common theme of our state’s politics during the Snyder years: it’s been too poorly funded to run as intended. Although we can all get behind the mission of this program, the execution has meant that low-income children aren’t actually guaranteed preschool coverage. For example, the director of the Wayne County branch of the program reported that she must place many low-income families — who otherwise qualify to enroll in the program — on the waitlist. In fact, despite this Great Start Program, 133,000 Michigan children are not enrolled in any preschool program.
Given the sad reality that these inequities arise from scant funding from the state level, I believe it’s time for the city of Ann Arbor to take matters into our own hands. Luckily, although we’re no stranger to pioneering our own path, this is an issue where we could benchmark other cities and follow the path they’ve already created. Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington DC are all cities that have successfully created, and properly funded, universal preschool programs. Let’s learn from their examples and create a more equitable and fair Ann Arbor for our children.
By and large, the most common avenue taken by cities to fund these preschool initiatives are increasing taxes on their residents. Philadelphia funds their programs through their soda tax initiative, while San Antonio pulls from its sales tax reservoirs. These “dedicated sales and property taxes,” have worked in countless cities across the United States. There’s no reason why they can’t work here. Consequently, instead of asking “is it possible to fund universal preschool for the children of Ann Arbor,” the real question, is: what price should we pay to ensure a more fair future for ourselves and our children?
In my opinion, regardless of the cost, no price is too high to pay. By providing universal preschool to all of our community’s children, we will reap immeasurable benefits. Not only will be increase the life chances of thousands of children in our community, but we will also be creating a more fair, safe, and prosperous Ann Arbor. Luckily for us, the actual monetary price we’d pay would not be too high. Back in my hometown of Philadelphia, soft drinks are still reasonably priced — and the small increase in price pales in comparison to the effect I’m having on my community. Through enacting common-sense tax increases like the ones in Philadelphia, I hope the children of Ann Arbor will soon be able to see the same benefits. The time to act is now — our future depends on it.