Virginia First Lady Pamela Northam hails Southwest Virginia early childhood education efforts during ARC Conference

Virginia’s first lady took the opportunity of hosting the 2021 Appalachian Regional Commission Conference Tuesday to push for more early childhood education throughout Appalachia. Three governors and representatives of 13 Appalachian region state governments heard from Northam at the UVA-Wise Oxbow Center in St. Paul Tuesday morning.

“Early childhood education gives us the highest possible return on investment across the education spectrum,” Northam said. “It improves both the workforce of today and tomorrow because we can get parents back to work today, and we know that (among early childhood educated individuals later in life) incomes and earnings are better, educational attainments rates are higher and it decreases poverty rates and rates of substance abuse including opioids.”

Northam invited Travis Staton, president and CEO of the United Way of Southwest Virginia to share success stories from the early childhood education programs that have been piloted in the region, and are now in place across the commonwealth.

Staton continued the theme that early childhood education is a key to future economic growth. “If you spend any time at all around economic developers, you’ll likely hear them say something like, ‘economic development is a process, not an event – you have to play the long game.’ Well, early childhood education is the definition of the economic development long game, but it can help in the short term too.”

The United Way of Southwest Virginia has been one of the leading partners with the Virginia state government in piloting and developing early childhood education initiatives including the new unified system of measurement and improvement. “It’s how a small family day home in rural Appalachia can provide equitable early childhood education compared to an expensive center in a larger market,” Staton said.

The ARC put forward a new five-year strategic plan at the meeting. That plan included building Appalachia’s workforce ecosystem and building community leaders and capacity. Both of those goals, Northam said, can be directly affected by early childhood education. An ounce of investment in young children today can save pounds of expense years down the road, she added before asking rhetorically, “And who doesn’t love children and want to support them?”