This report presents results from research into the effects of early childhood programs on their participants, particularly low-income and at-risk children. The studies described offer evidence on the long-term effects of high quality early childhood programs. Such programs can have long-lasting positive effects on children and their families, whether measured by intellectual performance in childhood, school achievement in adolescence, reduced placements in special education, reduced retentions in grade, improved high school graduation rates, reduced arrest rates, or older age of mothers at the birth of their first child. These evaluations further suggest that the returns on investments in high-quality early childhood education are significantly larger than the returns on almost any other public investment, with a return of anywhere from four to seventeen dollars for every dollar spent on programs. Studies of Head Start and state preschool programs report modest short-term effects, including significant improvement in the literacy and social skills of children as well as in the behavior of their parents. The evidence described in this report suggests that existing publicly funded preschool programs would benefit from becoming more like high-quality model preschool programs that have been proven effective. Resources and responsibility are currently scattered across a diverse array of competing agencies, with insufficient attention given to the quality of programs. Turning this patchwork of governance practices and programs into an efficient, effective system is both an opportunity and a challenge for Michigan policy-makers. Providing high quality early childhood care and education to young children, particularly those living in at-risk conditions, is an investment that will pay substantial, tangible dividends down the road by raising skill levels across the state workforce while reducing unemployment and welfare dependency, criminal justice costs and teen pregnancy rates. Michigan is beginning to map out a comprehensive early childhood support system, but has yet to put significant resources behind this effort. The goal of Michigan's early childhood education policies in the immediate future should be a steady increase in the number of children participating in high-quality early childhood education programs. A strategy to achieve this goal requires action on five different fronts: (1) Michigan must reduce the patchwork of programs and providers, rather than making it more complicated; (2) Policy-makers must raise the bar in terms of the quality of care received by Michigan children by increasing standards and expectations for all early childhood education programs and providers; (3) State policy-makers should use funds more effectively, shifting funds to higher-quality center-based programs and away from low-quality and custodial programs; (4) Policy-makers should target resources toward the neediest children, including those living with toxic stress and those currently involved in low-quality early childhood care; and (5) Policy-makers should support efforts to develop and expand model programs for needy children in needy communities. Decisions about early childhood care and education made by state policy-makers today will have profound and lasting effects on the economic and social well-being of children, their families and the state itself for decades to come. (Contains 66 endnotes, 6 figures, and 5 tables.).