Gov. Whitmer launches new Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential

On the heels of signing Michigan’s historic bipartisan education budget last summer for Fiscal Year 2024, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has continued her commitment to substantially improve long-term education outcomes across the state. In early December, Whitmer, true to her commitment, launched the new Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP). Established by executive order, MiLEAP will focus on developing talent to fill in-demand jobs and careers through advancing and facilitating early learning and higher education initiatives, programs, and forward-thinking strategies. The goals are to vastly educate, keep talent in Michigan, and strengthen the state’s economy well into the future. “Every Michigander deserves a path to ‘make it in Michigan’ with strong, lifelong learning support and a path to a good job,” Whitmer said in a statement earlier this month. “However, for too long, we have thought of education as just K-12. We know that’s not good enough.” Whitmer touts MiLEAP as an innovative education department that will set and tackle bold goals, including expanding access to pre-K for all 4-year-olds, offering more affordable paths for high school graduates to obtain a higher education or in-demand skills training, providing pathways for 60% of the state’s working-age adults to earn...