One of the top political bloggers in the state - Susan Demas - recently took on the issue of early childhood and where it rates in the minds of Michigan legislators. Her headline says it all: "Michigan's braindead approach to early education"

I might quibble with both the lack of a hyphen in "braindead" (sorry, I'm a former and sometimes journalist) and also the implication that Michigan gets nothing right when it comes to early childhood.

But Demas does indeed make a strong case that, considering the mountains of research about the benefits of early childhood, Michigan would do well to stop cutting early childhood funding (Michigan, she correctly notes, was among the select few that drastically cut EC spending for this fiscal year) and instead find ways to increase it. The key: Doing away with the old notion that "education" is only a K-12 proposition. 

She writes:  "Our leaders seem oddly satisfied with the state continuing to do things the way we always have in education. (And) why not? That strategy has worked brilliantly for Michigan before. Just ask GM and Chrysler."

That's brilliantly snarky, of course. And I can't say I disagree with her.

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