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Education: ESSA public hearing schedule should be expanded

For months, state public education officials have been working on a strategy to move West Virginia schools forward and tactics to make it happen. In view of the fiasco revolving around another major initiative, Common Core curriculum, it might be expected every effort would be made to get the public involved in the new plan.

Well, not quite.

In September, state Department of Education officials plan to submit their Every Student Succeeds Act plan to federal officials. The ESSA is Washington’s replacement for the national No Child Left Behind law.

Obviously, getting the ESSA right is very important. Ensuring Mountain State residents are aware of the plan and feel they have had opportunities to influence it is vital.

Just a month ago, state officials planned a grand total of just three public hearings throughout the state on the proposal. They were scheduled in June and this month in Belle, Martinsburg and Weston.

That was absurd, of course. It amounted to no more than a formality, not a genuine attempt to involve the public.

After that schedule was criticized, the Department of Education added four more hearings, in Fairmont, Glen Dale, Ona and Ronceverte.

No, your eyes don’t deceive you. Even with the added locations, no hearings are set anywhere in our area. The nearest appears to be the one held June 19 in Weston.

Residents of Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Wirt, Jackson, Doddridge, Roane and Ritchie counties are being left out in the cold as far as access to the hearings.

There still is time for the state to add hearings to its schedule. The last one on the current list is July 27 in Ronceverte. There are several weeks between that and when state officials plan to submit their ESSA proposal in Washington.

There is no conspiracy to deny Mountain State residents opportunities to comment on the plan, of course. But there is a very real apathy about a meaningful, comprehensive attempt to involve the public.

Our schools — our children and grandchildren — are too important for that attitude to prevail. State officials should add a public hearing on the ESSA somewhere within easy driving distance for residents of our area.

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