Despite profound benefits of high-quality early childhood education (ECE) that could address and avert educational inequities for children of color and those from low-income backgrounds, ECE in Michigan and across the nation lacks sufficient funding. Students of color and students from low-income backgrounds particularly encounter many barriers to accessing high-quality early childhood education. Michigan's education advocates, state leaders, and policymakers have made great strides in pursuing ECE quality, access, and funding structure improvement. This report describes how to provide every student with an equitable opportunity to reach their full potential by focusing on five foundational elements to fortify the ECE system and facilitate students' successful transitions from preschool into kindergarten and beyond: (1) quality; (2) access and affordability; (3) funding structure improvement; (4) data; and (5) workforce recruitment, compensation, and retention strategies.