E3’s Chairman, Gary McCollum, had an Op-Ed featured in today’s Virginian-Pilot on the importance of early education and Old Dominion University’s new Virginia Early Childhood Policy Center. Read an excerpt below:
…While our traditional views and approaches might have been successful in the past, a startling truth has emerged: Our students and our future workforce are falling behind. The things that worked in the past won’t get us to new levels of growth in the global economy.
As a business leader, I believe early education is a business imperative and an economic driver that needs to be addressed if we’re going to see the workforce we need to stay competitive today and in the future.
Early education is one of the most strategic investments we can make to propel the state’s economy and ensure Virginia’s competitiveness in the global marketplace.
The first step is to define the problem and gain a better understanding of the readiness gap that children face as they’re entering kindergarten.
A recently announced partnership with Old Dominion University could be the keystone that will move us in the right direction for making more strategic, data-driven decisions for our youngest children. One of the problems I’ve seen is a lack of understanding of how we’re spending money in the years of 0 to 5. Currently, we do invest money in 0 to 5, but are we seeing results?
ODU’s Virginia Early Childhood Policy Center aims not only to fill that void but also provide useful information to parents, communities and schools on the whole child – from education and health issues to family support services and special populations. It will fill a critical role by collecting and sharing information regarding the current state of early childhood education in Virginia.
Read the full Op-Ed here.
Learn more about ODU’s Virginia Early Childhood Policy Center here.