Summary

  • The Michigan legislature and executive branch eliminated $23.4 million in Great Start Collaborative and book-distribution funding, shifting early childhood service brokerage from a centralized state infrastructure to localized private funding models.
  • The structural removal of the Collaborative coordination layer preserves direct pre-K and Early On appropriations but severs the family-to-service linkage mechanism, creating a delayed failure pathway measured in unconnected eligible children rather than immediate enrollment drops.
  • Network topology and systems dynamics frameworks indicate the state is substituting a dedicated bipartite bridge network with a fragmented hub-and-spoke model, transferring the coordination burden to intermediate school districts and private philanthropy with delayed degradation of outreach capacity.
  • Documented local responses show immediate service halts in multiple counties and geographic concentration of remaining services, while political framing diverges between infrastructure-loss concerns and record per-pupil instruction pride.

Michigan’s $24.12 billion education budget excluded $19.4 million previously allocated for Great Start Collaboratives and $4 million for book-distribution efforts, eliminating the centralized coordination layer that connected families to early childhood services across the state. While direct instructional and developmental appropriations for pre-K and Early On programs remain fully funded, the structural removal of the Collaborative infrastructure shifts the brokerage function to localized, often private, funding models. This reallocation preserves the supply side of the early childhood portfolio but severs the family-to-service linkage mechanism, establishing a delayed failure pathway where the primary indicator of harm is not immediate program closure but the slow accumulation of eligible children disconnected from existing services.

Brokerage elimination and the delayed failure pathway

The Collaboratives functioned as a brokerage layer rather than a direct service provider, connecting parents to child-care programs, distributing children’s books, and facilitating home consultations. The Michigan Department of Lifelong Learning, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) retained funding for direct services, including $638.2 million for the state’s pre-K program for 4-year-olds, $18 million for pre-K transportation, $25 million for a pre-K program for 3-year-olds, and $23.6 million for Early On services. The Great Start Readiness Program maintains approximately 51,000 enrolled students, and the state retains a goal to serve 75% of 4-year-olds with publicly funded programs by 2027.

The structural consequence of eliminating the brokerage layer is a divergence between available capacity and actual family connection. Matt Gillard, president and CEO of Michigan’s Children, characterized the risk: “The concern is that these programs are going to be out there but families don’t know they exist.” Susan Clark, director of early childhood services at Calhoun Intermediate School District, echoed the structural loss: “the framework of an early childhood system and connection for families has disappeared.” Because children not connected to early detection and support services do not register as missing from program enrollment counts, the failure pathway extends well beyond the immediate political cycle, manifesting instead in downstream school readiness and developmental screening metrics.

Structural topology and burden shifting

Viewed through the network topology concepts formalized by Albert-László Barabási, Michigan’s early childhood structure is transitioning from a bipartite model—where Great Start Collaboratives served as the central bridge connecting state resources to local families and providers—toward a fragmented, localized hub-and-spoke model. The House Republican proposal, which recommended rolling the Collaborative funds into per-pupil payments based on House Fiscal Agency analysis, structurally dissolved the connective tissue of the network by routing coordination dollars through a mechanism designed to follow enrolled students rather than sustain outreach infrastructure.

Viewed through the systems dynamics terminology of Peter Senge, this structural adjustment exhibits a “Shifting the Burden” archetype. The state transfers the coordination function from a dedicated infrastructure to local intermediate school districts and private philanthropy, carrying the delayed side effect of degraded outreach capacity. The immediate balancing loop of budget pressure yields rapid service halts, while the long-term reinforcing loop—where reduced family awareness leads to lower utilization of retained services and subsequently poorer developmental outcomes—operates on a five-to-ten-year horizon. This dynamic directly frictions the state’s 2027 pre-K enrollment goal, to the extent that early outreach historically drives program participation. Furthermore, the loss of the home-visit early detection layer structurally increases the downstream pipeline into early childhood special education. Clark noted that “the home visits help families understand positive parenting and child development milestones.”

Local operational contraction and private patch-funding

The immediate operational reality documented across Michigan counties reflects rapid infrastructure contraction and a reliance on decentralized, locally-funded brokerage. Wexford-Missaukee Intermediate School District ended its Collaborative services, including home consultations, in December. Lacy Crummey, former director of the district, noted that personal relationships with families will not be as deep under the new grant structure administered by MiLEAP. Great Start Collaborative Kent County announced on Jan. 15 it would end services at the end of the month, citing state cuts. Great Start Collaboratives in Allegan and Copper Country also announced closings. As of the Monday before publication, 54 Collaboratives remained listed on the state’s website, though the total number of actual closures was unclear.

In counties where services survive, they do so through private patch-funding that concentrates resources geographically. The Calhoun County Collaborative continues to operate via WK Kellogg Foundation funding, but home visits are restricted to Battle Creek. Clark reported she is applying for grants to extend visits to other parts of the county and anticipates they will end in the coming months without additional funding. In Clinton County, the Collaborative operates through June with family-liaison staffing reduced from 1.66 to one full-time equivalent employee, relying on Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and local school districts for book distribution. The Northwest Great Start Collaborative, serving Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties, suspended scholarships for students at risk of losing child-care spots due to unaffordable tuition.

Political framing and budget negotiations

The budget debate featured competing structural models and divergent frames regarding the state’s early childhood commitments. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic-controlled Senate proposed continuing the Collaborative funding, while the GOP-led House recommended the per-pupil reallocation. Ultimately, the legislature did not fund the program.

Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw, opposed restoring the funding, stating: “We don’t need to be getting into (the) cradle with government programs.” Conversely, Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown Township, expressed pride in the budget’s record per-pupil funding, record funding for at-risk students, and preservation of universal school meals, noting that Collaborative funding “didn’t make it across the finish line” and pledging to advocate for its restoration in upcoming negotiations. Robin Hornkohl, who coordinates Great Start efforts at Northwest Education Services, characterized the defunding as an unexpected shock to the system: “In October we were completely blindsided by this,” she said, adding, “This is infrastructure that’s been in place for nearly 20 years in our state.” MiLEAP, referring questions from Whitmer’s office, issued a statement emphasizing ongoing partnerships: “we continue to partner with Intermediate School Districts (ISDs) and early childhood stakeholders to strengthen coordination and improve outcomes for children across the state,” and asserted, “Together, these investments reflect the state’s ongoing commitment to giving every Michigan child the strong start they deserve.”

Analytical techniques used in this piece

This analysis applies the methods below. Each links to a short, plain-English explainer you can read and reuse.

Pre-Mortem (Action Plan)
Imagines the plan has already failed, then works backward to find out why.
Relationship Mapping
Extracts the network of ties among people, institutions, and entities.
Systems Dynamics (Structural)
Maps a system’s structure — stocks, flows, and the architecture that shapes its behavior.