The first of its kind in the country, the program, th Michigan Tri-Share Child Care Pilot Program, gets at the high price of child care by creating a cost-sharing program in which the state, employers and employees all share the cost of care evenly. Launched in March with $1 million in state funding, it’s overseen by the Michigan Women’s Commission, part of the state Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, and is currently operating in three areas of the state: Muskegon County, the Northwest Lower Michigan, and the Great Lakes Bay Region. Those three were picked to represent urban, suburban, and rural settings in order to assess whether and how the program can work in different settings.
