Dustin Dwyer

Inside a brightly lit ballroom in East Lansing last week, hundreds of early childhood educators from around the state sat at circular tables for an annual strategy meeting.

Usually, it’s a meeting to talk about how to get politicians to pay attention to preschool.

But this year, it was clear the politicians are already paying attention. 

Susan Broman, the leader of the state’s Great Start Readiness Program, stood at the podium and summed up what many people in the room were feeling.

"Early childhood’s time has come," she said.

Preschool seems to be having a moment right now. Lots of states are looking at expanding access to a pre-K education. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder just proposed an extra $130 million in spending over the next two years to make sure all 4 year olds from low income homes can go to preschool. 

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Obama took the idea even further. He proposed giving all 4 year olds access to preschool. 

But a promise made in a speech is not the same thing as a policy, and the President's somewhat vague comments left more questions than answers. 

So, we're going to try to answer 3 of the most important questions with the information we have right now: 

1. What will the President's proposal actually look like? 

 Governor Snyder delivered his budget proposals to the state legislature today. Here are a few highlights relevant to disadvantaged kids in Michigan: 

Child abuse and neglect appear to be increasing in Michigan. A new report from the Michigan League for Public Policy says more than 33,000 children in Michigan were victims of abuse or neglect in 2011. That’s an 18 percent increase compared to 2005.

There is a dispute over the exact size of the increase. 

"We’re not saying that there isn’t an uptick," says Dave Akerly, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Human Services. "We’re saying that from our standpoint, we believe that the uptick isn’t as dramatic as it would appear to be."

He says the numbers in the Michigan League report are a little misleading because a lot changed at DHS between 2005 and 2011. One of the things that changed is how cases get reported.

So, Akerly says instead of there being a huge increase in abuse and neglect, we may just be seeing a more accurate picture of abuse and neglect.

And no matter how you look at that, it’s an ugly picture.

We post about a lot of reports on this site. We use a lot of statistics. Not sure if you noticed. 

The point is that these statistics all tell a story, and the story for kids in poverty is almost always bad. The latest report to confirm it is from the Michigan League for Public Policy (formerly known as the Michigan League for Human Services).

The League is the agency responsible for compiling Michigan's statistics for the annual Annie E. Casey Kids Count report. Kids Count offers one of the most comprehensive set of statistics on child well being.  If you want to know how children are doing, particularly children in poverty, Kids Count will give you the answer.

And the answer in the latest Michigan Kids Count report is that children are not doing great. 

  Transcript: 

STATE OF OPPORTUNITY: documentary

[Dustin Dwyer:] Children’s brains do not come preprogrammed.

[Jack Shonkoff:] Literally, our environment shapes the architecture of our brain.

[Dustin Dwyer:] If that environment is dominated by the stress of poverty, and a lack of learning opportunities, the brain is physically changed.

[Clancy Blair:] The effects of poverty on childen’s development are pervasive and they last throughout childhood and into early adulthood. There’s no question about it.”

As you listen to State of Opportunity's special on the value and benefits of early education you can use this guide to help you dive into the material, help you understand what you're hearing, and start conversations or discussions with your friends or co-workers.

PART ONE: This is your brain on poverty.

Today, there are two speeches on everyone's minds: the speech that President Obama delivered on the steps of the Capitol, and the famous speech Martin Luther King Jr. gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. 

But there is another speech I have in mind on this MLK day, and it reminds us both of King's legacy and of the work that is left to do, for President Obama, for us and for our future. 

I know you don't want to read this any more than I want to write it.

The point of State of Opportunity is to talk about how we can improve life for our most vulnerable children.  We talk about education, we talk about health, we talk about public policy. We have not yet talked much about violence. I wish we didn't have to. 

What happened in Newtown is incomprehensible. We are left only with grief. 

And yet we know that what happened in Newtown is not rare. Mass shootings, we hear about all the time. Children victimized by violence, we try not to think about. 

But the sad reality is children are murdered every day in America. Consider these statistics, compiled from reports by the CDC and the Congressional Research Service: