×

Senate Finance chair says no to raise for West Virginia teachers

Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography Sen. Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, speaks in favor of the Senate amendment to SB 451 during a floor debate.

CHARLESTON — While a pay raise for teachers and school service personnel is expected to pass the House of Delegates today, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is still sour over the loss of the Senate’s education reform package which also included the pay raise.

House Bill 2730 provides for a 5 percent salary increase for teachers and school service personnel, as well as employees of the West Virginia State Police. The bill is on third reading in the House this morning. If it passes, it will go to the state Senate and likely the Senate Finance Committee.

State Sen. Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, chairs the finance committee and is vice-chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He was a vocal supporter of Senate Bill 451, which crashed and burned in the House Tuesday after a motion was adopted to postpone it indefinitely.

The bill that died Tuesday was amended by the Senate Monday to include a limited number of education savings accounts and expanded the number of public charter schools allowed. The House version removed education savings accounts and limited charters to a two-school pilot project and opened it up to only existing elementary schools.

Shortly before the Senate amended SB 451 Monday evening, the three unions representing teachers and school service personnel called for a statewide strike. From Tuesday through Wednesday, teachers and staff from across the state walked out of their schools, and hundreds rallied at the state Capitol. After being assured that SB 451 would not be revived, the strike was called off and teachers returned to their classrooms Thursday.

Both the Senate and House versions included a version of the 5 percent pay raises for teachers and school service personnel that Gov. Jim Justice requested. Blair was one of several lawmakers who stood behind Justice in October when the pay raise was first announced.

“I always said I would vote for a pay raise of 5 percent. I did it last year and I did it this year already,” Blair said. “But I also have said publicly that if they went out on strike that I would not vote for a pay raise.”

Blair could prevent SB 451 from being presented in his committee, but he has no plans to stop it from moving through the process. At the same time, he personally won’t support it and is still upset about the two-day strike.

“To go out on strike this year was unacceptable in my opinion,” Blair said. “Especially when Senate Bill 451 actually provided a significant amount of funding, not just a 5 percent pay raise. It was a whole host of things.”

While much of the focus by teachers and union groups was on the education savings accounts, Blair said the costs of those proposed plans were insignificant when compared to other education investments in SB 451. According to Blair, the Senate version of SB 451 would have cost $148 million annually.

The largest expenditure in the bill was $67.7 million for the raises, followed by $24.3 million for counselors, nurses and psychologists in schools; $18.5 million for bonuses for retiring teachers who banked their annual leave; $15.8 million for changes in local share that would have given counties more funding; and $10.3 million for funding counties at 1,400 base student population level.

“You’ve got counties like Calhoun that only have 1,051 students,” Blair said. “They would have benefited from this, and they came out and were opposed to Senate Bill 451. It’s borderline insanity.”

Blair pointed out that the charter school program and the education savings account program combined cost $795,000 per year.

“This was less than .75 percent of 1 percent, and they decided to strike on those two issues,” Blair said. “It doesn’t make any sense at all. I don’t get it. There’s been a lot of misinformation communicated to the people, both the teachers, the school service personnel, the superintendents of schools, the school boards. Everybody involved.”

Instead of moving forward with the pay raises, Blair wants to take the $148 million that would have gone to pay for the provisions of SB 451 and use it for secondary road projects in the state.

“I had countless emails saying, ‘if you’re going to pass Senate Bill 451, I don’t want a pay raise.’ OK, I recognize that,” Blair said. “Why not take this money and go out and fix the potholes, the culverts, clean the ditches so the roads will last longer. We have road problems across the state that’s just as big of a crisis.”

“I want a good education for our children,” Blair said. “That is very, very important, but one of the reasons our education costs are so high is because of the travel expenses we incur getting our kids from their homes to the classroom.”

Blair hopes that over the next year people will understand all the good things that were lost with the defeat of SB 451. He expects the Senate will try again next year on education reform.

“A year from now we will have had time enough for the public and our education community to digest what was in Senate Bill 451 and understand that it is a really advanced idea in the beginning for being able to allow the flexibility in the classrooms and a better education system,” Blair said.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today