LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – All children at the age of five beginning in the 2025-26 school year could be required to be enrolled in kindergarten, according to new legislation in the Michigan Senate.
What’s in the legislation?
In a Democrat led piece of legislation, Senate Bill 285, sponsored by State Senator Danya Polehanki (D-Livonia), would lower the minimum age for school in Michigan from six-years-old to five.
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She defended the bill on social media, arguing that the bill would not remove parental choice.
“The bill doesn’t remove choice from parents, but rather creates higher standards to ensure all children receive a formal education from an early age,” said State Sen. Polehanki on X (formerly Twitter).
Also the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, Polehanki, supported the legislation as it would work with Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s proposal to bring free preschool to all four year olds in the state by the end of 2026.
“We’re saying that we’ve got to get serious about kids’ early formal education in Michigan, if we’re going to set them up for a lifetime of academic achievement,” Polehanki said on X (formerly Twitter).
Advocates of parental choice in education push back on new legislation.
Beth DeShone, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project, an advocacy group that supports more government accountability and parental choice in education, spoke out against the bill in committee suggesting that the decision of when to start schooling should remain with the parents.
“Dayna Polehanki doesn’t think very highly of parents in her district – or across the state of Michigan,” said DeShone. “Parents know what’s best for their children, and they send them to school when they’re ready.”
DeShone also expressed that not all children at age five are ready to begin school.
“The overwhelming majority of those kids attend kindergarten when they’re 5 years old, but every now and then a child might not yet be ready for school at that age,” she said. “Senator Polehanki’s bill tells those parents that she knows better than they do how to raise and educate their kids. She doesn’t.”
Bill Would Likely Increase State Budget Senate Report Finds.
A Senate Fiscal Analysis for the bill records that the current per pupil allowance is $9,608.
“It is unknown exactly how many five-year-olds attend kindergarten at nonpublic schools or are home- schooled, but it is estimated that 95% are either attending district kindergarten or are exempted under the current statute,” the report said. “Using first-grade pupil counts as a proxy for entering kindergarten counts, requiring kindergarten for all five-year-olds could increase statewide pupil count by approximately 4,500 pupils.”
The Senate Fiscal Analysis anticipates that the change would likely increase the cost to the state by $43.3 million per year if the remainder of the state’s five year olds were to become enrolled in kindergarten.
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