Challenge West Virginia

By Phil Kabler

Gov. Joe Manchin said Tuesday he was “very disappointed” that the Legislature failed to pass any substantial public school reform legislation during the recently completed seven-day special session.

“We stepped forward as hard as we could … and we still got nothing,” he said of the seven-bill agenda for education reform.

Ultimately, only three of the bills passed the Legislature, and those were reduced to pilot projects or studies.

“I’m very disappointed we didn’t get more accomplished,” Manchin said. “I’m disappointed the Education Committees didn’t take it more seriously to make change.”

Several of the bills were killed or watered-down in the House Education Committee, where a majority of members are current or retired teachers or school service personnel. Committee Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Manchin said it is clear that the current public school system is not adequately preparing students for higher education and for jobs in the 21st-century workplace.

“The results don’t lie. They are what they are,” he said. “The education system is the way it is, perhaps, because change hasn’t happened.”

Manchin stopped short of blaming teachers union lobbyists for blocking reform.

“They’re doing what they feel is best. It’s just not getting the results we need,” he said. Click to read more …

The WV Legislature, while passing some feel-good initiatives that could improve student performance, continues to shy away from significant educational reform in West Virginia.

West Virginia ranks near the bottom of US states in student performance, while spending among the largest amount of money on education per capita in the country.

They have failed to pass big-ticket recommendations, including new charter school legislation, called “Charter Innovation Zones 2.0.”

They have failed to pass alternative certification programs for non-teachers or any kind of teacher performance monitoring system based on student performance and other factors.

Following the teachers union position, there is apparently no movement on annual evaluations for teachers, essentially holding to an entrenched tenured system.

There was no movement on incentive-based pay for teachers or changes that would allow the state board to remove ineffective principals in a timely fashion.

Legislators are wary of the influence of the state’s teachers unions, and that teachers and school personnel likely represent the biggest voter block in the state.

There are some proposals to bring teacher pay up to standards maintained by neighboring states.

A bill reads, “West Virginia’s unadjusted average teacher salary is less than those of the contiguous states which puts West Virginia at a competitive disadvantage for employing the best teachers.”

It states pay increases would “assist in attracting the best and the brightest students to the teaching profession.”

by Alice Coleman

Democracy that embodies the will of the people does not apply in Fayette County.

During the last eight years, Fayette County citizens have overwhelmingly voted against two bond issues for consolidation of our schools. In 2001, 88 percent of our citizens voted against the bond issue. In 2009, 78 percent voted against the bond issue.

Today, less than a year later, our citizens are facing the fact that their steadfast vote against consolidation and the fundamental principles and rights that are guaranteed in our Constitution hold very little significance to nonelected officials in charge.

The nonelected officials in the State Board of Education have already stripped the power from the five elected members of the Fayette County Board of Education. To add insult to injury, they continue to shove their will down the throats of our citizens.

A 10-year educational facilities plan has been retrieved from the Fayette County Board of Education, and an appointed committee has been working on revisions to the plan for restructuring of our Fayette County schools. This appointed committee met on July 12 with a group of about 150 Fayette County citizens supposedly to give our citizens the opportunity to review the plan and the opportunity for input.

Our citizens interpreted the plan for exactly what it is: another attempt to consolidate schools. To put it mildly, the citizens’ unswerving opposition to the plan was quite apparent.

The good citizens of Fayette County voted for and are supporting a levy that now finances their schools to the tune of approximately $8 million a year. Nonetheless, these same citizens have reached their limits in negotiating with the bureaucracy of the nonelected.

If the nonelected state officials want to control and finance the restructuring of the Fayette County school system, our fine citizens will oblige them with a “no vote” on any and all future levy bond issues for consolidation of our schools.

Alice Coleman is a resident of Glen Jean in Fayette County.

by Ry Rivard
Daily Mail Capitol Reporter
Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Until a U.S. Senate vacancy opened up, this week was supposed to be all about Gov. Joe Manchin’s education reform agenda.
Yet in between the frantic rush to hold an election, lawmakers have been quietly scaling back the governor’s already pared down education reform plans.

Over the weekend, Manchin sent seven education bills to the Legislature.

Four appear on track for passage, two appear dead in the House and one has been heavily amended. But that’s after the bills were vetted by a 10-member House and Senate task force. That’s the group Manchin assembled when a legislative special session on education grinded to a halt in May following a week of failed attempts to agree on the governor’s plans.

In the past weeks, the committee has met and scaled back Manchin’s plan.

But the deepest cut to the governor’s reform plans was apparently self-inflicted. After more than a year of debate over allowing charter schools in West Virginia, Manchin didn’t put a charter school bill before the Legislature.

That decision was seemingly part political calculation, part practical matter.

Manchin met late last week in his office with Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin and House Speaker Rick Thompson.

Coming into the meeting, Manchin appeared ready to submit the charter school bill to lawmkers, Tomblin said.

But, by the meeting’s end, the bill was off the table.

“We counted the votes and didn’t think we had enough to move it,” Manchin said.

Charter school proponents say the bill was already watered down.

Charter school critic Judy Hale, the president of the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said she wasn’t sure either the House or the Senate wanted to deal with the controversial bill, which teachers unions don’t like.

“I don’t think either house wanted to deal with it in a special session,” Hale said.

Part of the reason may be the strong backlash from unions that the three men might face just as each is planning a run for office. Manchin is expected to seek the open U.S. Senate seat and Tomblin and Thompson have both set their sights on the governor’s office. Thompson is also running for reelection in the House.

Manchin said union’s campaign was never brought up.

“I’m fighting for everything I can,” he said.

Ahead of this year’s May primary, unions funded a negative campaign against Sen. Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, a top proponent of charter schools and critic of the teachers unions.

Tomblin said he and the governor were inclined to go ahead with the bill.

“Obviously the Senate preferred to have the charter bill,” Tomblin said.

He said he thought it was “probable” that Manchin also wanted it to be taken up now by the Legislature.

But they did not push the bill.

“No sense in putting something on if it was doomed for failure,” Tomblin said.

He said he was not going “stand up then and beat my chest” to get the controversial bill on the governor’s legislative agenda. House lawmakers have not been receptive to charter schools.

It is not clear House leader Thompson’s role in the meeting. Thompson declined through a spokeswoman to talk about the meeting, saying he considers discussions with the governor and the president to be confidential.

Manchin’s legislative director, Jim Pitrolo, said “there was no consensus” for the charter school bill.

“It wasn’t just one or two people,” he said.

Other bills the work group also considered were held back by Manchin, although it is not clear at whose request.

After the meeting with the speaker and president, members of the Senate went to have Manchin pull a bill that would have guaranteed teachers a planning period, Tomblin said. Unions complain teachers are having the period taken from them by school administrators.

“I guess it was one of those touchy issues,” Tomblin said. “It was touchy on the Senate side, whereas charter schools were touchy on the House.”

Manchin said the charter school bill and the planning period bill would be moved together in the future.

Besides the planning period bill, the governor also did not introduce legislation to reduce class size and to give teachers a pay raise, though each idea was discussed by the task force. Click to read more …