11/06/2025

GOGEBIC COUNTY - A new state initiative is working to improve early childhood teacher pay.  MiLEAP and the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District have launched what they call the Early Childhood Educator Wage Initiative. With GOISD as the trustee, $16 million will go toward providing teachers of Michigan’s youngest students with monthly stipends.  The wages initiative will run through September 2027, with grantees responsible for recruiting childcare businesses and professionals in their region, distributing funds to eligible early childhood educators, collecting data for evaluation and supporting continuous quality improvement at the local level.  Currently Full-time early childhood educators in the U.P. earn between $20,000 and $30,000, which is about 31% behind their K-12 colleagues.