Virginia has assembled a task force of business leaders who
will spend the rest of 2024 working to increase the Commonwealth’s supply of
high-quality early childhood care and education services.
Leaders announced the launch of Shovel Ready Virginia—which
has the slogan “We mean business with childcare”—on July 11 at the
July 11 meeting of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation.
VECF founded the Virginia Business Roundtable for Early
Education last year, according to its website, on the belief that
“Virginia’s prosperity and quality of life are inextricably dependent upon
a strong early childhood education system. ”
The new task force will advise the roundtable members on
strategies to meet its mission and address the unique childcare supply
challenges in each of the nine Ready Regions across the state.
The Ready Region structure was established in 2022 to
coordinate statewide efforts under the Virginia Department of Education to
improve childcare supply and access.
The Fredericksburg area—which includes Fredericksburg and
the counties of Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline, and King George—is in Ready
Region North Central along with Loudoun, Fauquier, Prince William, and Culpeper
counties and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
According to the Ready Region North Central website, the
region has 97,628 children under age 5, and the majority—66%—have both parents
in the workforce. There are 66,650 childcare slots in the region, and 10,210
more slots are needed to meet the demand.
The new task force will explore ways to increase the number
of childcare slots in each Ready Region.
The meeting will begin in August; initial findings and
recommendations will be provided by December.
“Working collaboratively with [Virginia Business
Roundtable for Early Education] leaders, the Task Force members share a bold
vision to make Virginia the best state to live, learn, work, and raise a
family, along with making the Commonwealth ‘shovel-ready’ to attract new and
retain existing businesses,” said Mike Chinn, a partner with Endicott
Capital, Chair of VBREE and Co-Chair of the new task force, in a press release.
In addition to Chinn, the 10-member task force includes
leaders from business, nonprofit, and nonprofit regional alliance leaders and
members of several state boards.
