By Teri Banas

DETROIT – Will the state’s youngest learners have a place at Sunday’s gubernatorial debate?

You might have to listen closely, but a discussion on early childhood could emerge in a likely broader talk on funding or reform of the state’s educational system when Republican Rick Snyder and Democrat Virg Bernero square off.

The live, one-hour show on Detroit Public Television begins at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 and is the only gubernatorial debate of the political season. (DPT has offered the debate to commercial TV stations statewide. Check your local listings.)

“I’m certain that education and children will be part of the public debate in some manner,” said Matt Gillard, a legislative affairs consultant with the Early Childhood Investment Corporation. “The candidates will have an opportunity to talk about early childhood in their responses. And I’m hopeful they will.”

“I hope to hear both candidates talk about support for investment in quality early childhood programs, and a recognition that they understand how critical it is to invest in our youngest citizens,” Gillard added.

An initiative of the Center for Michigan, the program is sponsored by the Michigan Municipal League. 

Three main subject areas will include: job creation and the economy, education, and government reform.

Gillard credited the emergence of the Sandbox Party – which attracted more than 6,000 people to its inaugural convention at Michigan State University’s Breslin Student Event Center in August – with elevating early childhood issues to a more visible position in the race for governor.

Both Bernero and Snyder addressed the convention, whose purpose was to rally support for state funding for early childhood efforts, which have suffered cuts in recent years.

“I think (the cause) has undoubtedly been raised to a higher level than it has been in Michigan before,” Gillard said. “We’ve seen attention from across the spectrum – from the business community, from the educational community, and we’ve also seen more active engagement of parents of young children themselves in the political process.”

Snyder, an Ann Arbor investor, has expressed openness to early learning in his call for a “P-20” education system that starts at preschool and continues through lifelong learning.

His 10-point vision for “Reinventing Michigan” calls for creating jobs and reforming Michigan’s tax system as his top two priorities. Reforming Michigan’s educational system is number eight. The plan states Michigan’s efforts should focus on a child’s progress from “pre-kindergarten through college and advanced degrees.”

“Early childhood is near and dear to my heart,” Snyder told the Sandbox Party Convention.

Bernero, mayor of Lansing and a former state lawmaker, agrees economic development and job creation must be top and center on the next governor’s priority list. But he says “strengthening education from early-education to higher-education” is central to Michigan’s economic recovery.

Bernero’s education plan calls for a goal that “every 4-year-old in Michigan by 2020 will be enrolled in high-quality preschool.” It further calls for full-day kindergarten.

He told Sandbox Party attendees, “We know (programs for child) 0 to 5 work. The facts are there, so let’s invest in our future.”

Independent polls show Snyder has a substantial lead – up to 20 points – over Bernero, according to Michigan news reports. The Snyder campaign, though, says its internal polls have narrowed that gap to 12 points.