Maybe I'm biased (oh, OK, of COURSE I'm biased), but it was gratifying to hear both gubernatorial candidates address the importance of early childhood last week at the first-ever Sandbox Party convention.

Rick Snyder said "early childhood is near and dear to my heart" and talked about his involvement in an early childhood initiative in South Dakota. While Virg Bernero said he viewed education as economic development and talked about how we have to "invest more in our young people so we have to invest less in (the) corrections system on the back end."

Each pledged to prioritize early childhood once elected, which is all well and good.

And yet ...

Well, politics is politics, of course. Pledges made today are often forgotten tomorrow. I don't think that will necessarily happen with these two men. They both seem like straight-shooters, and they both seem to genuinely believe that the ground floor is the right place to start with kids if your goal is to turn out productive adults.

But the next governor of Michigan faces an enormous task. And it will be up to voters - particularly the thousands who showed up at Breslin and the tens of thousands more statewide - to remind Gov. Fill-in-the-Blank of the wise words he spoke at the convention, and that the surest way to a better ending for Michigan is to start at the beginning.

Andrew Heller is Media Director for the Early Childhood Investment Corporation.