Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography Senate President Mitch Carmichael, after the passage of a community and technical college bill last week, talks about the importance of education.

CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Senate is taking a huge leap in its comprehensive education reform bill, an effort that has teachers and their unions concerned but has some parents anxious for any options that help their children succeed.

The 137-page comprehensive education reform package was introduced Thursday during the Senate Education Committee. It is a culmination of weeks of work directed by Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, and its goal is to reverse a troubling trend in test scores for West Virginia’s students.

According to the Balanced Scorecard developed by the state Department of Education, high school students statewide only partially met standards in English and language arts during the 2017-2018 school year, but did not meet math standards. The percentage of high schools partially meeting English and language arts standards was 57.24, while the percentage of high schools meeting math standards was 44.14.

According to the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 35 percent of West Virginia’s fourth graders performed at or above proficiency levels for reading and math. Those numbers drop to 28 percent in reading and 24 percent for math for eighth graders.

Those numbers are slightly better than 2015 numbers, but with the state consistently ranking in the bottom five state for low test scores, the numbers are still far too low for Carmichael.

Photo by Steven Allen Adams Fred Albert, president of the AFT-WV, talks with the press after hearing details of the education omnibus bill Thursday.

“What I contend, and what Senate Republicans contend is that our children, our parents, and our teachers are as gifted, blessed and talented as any in America, Carmichael said. “There is no reason for us to finish last, but the system has been allowed to fail.”

EASY AS 1-2-3

The education omnibus bills, as it’s being called by the press and the public, is a massive bill that has already gone through four iterations since being delivered to committee members Thursday. But the key parts have remained the same.

First, the 5 percent pay raise for teachers and school service personnel that Gov. Jim Justice proposed in October remains in the bill. This is on top of a 5 percent raise given last year after a 14-day strike by teachers in all 55 counties.

“Within this package we will provide the largest pay raise in state history, even more than we did last year,” Carmichael said. Justice’s October announcement saw Republican lawmakers stand behind him during the announcement.

Photo courtesy of the Cardinal Institute Over 800 parents and students rallied Wednesday at the start of National School Choice Week.

The bill includes a $250 tax credit for teachers to use for supplies, computers and whatever the teacher needs. Teachers would also have more say in whether student proceeds to the next grade or graduates. Nearly $25 million would be made available for hiring more counselors and psychologists to assist students who might not have the best home lives

Teachers also will be able to bank their sick leave, which is an effort originally pitched by the Department of Education to curb teacher absenteeism. For every 10 days of sick leave saved, the teacher would be able to receive a month of free health insurance through the Public Employee Insurance Agency when they retire.

“It’s a big proposal, because the substitute rate is so high in our education system,” Carmichael said. “At the county level, they’re constantly having to spend a lot of money for substitutes.”

Next, senate Republicans want to provide more pay incentives for math teachers to help reverse the poor test scores. Math teachers would be bumped up three steps in the salary scale. Counties would be given flexibility to increase salary for teaching positions in high-need subjects, such as science and language arts. Counties would also be able to increase their statutory levy rates to raise tax revenue for school systems.

“What is needed in Mercer County may not be needed in Monongalia County,” Carmichael said.

55 STRONG

While these initiatives might make some teachers happy, there are some of the bill’s provisions that unions are not happy about.

If the bill passes, teachers would not be paid during a work stoppage, but could receive back pay. School systems that close during a work stoppage, like what occurred last year, would not be allowed to hold their scheduled sporting events during the work stoppage.

The bill increases the student-teacher ratio from 25 students per teacher to 28 students, though teachers could be paid more if student classroom size. Teacher hiring and promotions would be done by several criteria and not solely on seniority. School administrators would also be able to be removed at the pleasure of the school board.

Carmichael stressed that he is not singling out teachers, but he does feel like there needs to be more accountability.

“There is nobody in this state, I’m convinced, that wants to finish near the bottom,” Carmichael said. “We’re better than that. We’d fire a coach at WVU if they finished 8-4. We’ve allowed this system we put in place, this education system — through no fault of teachers, through no fault of students — to languish at near-bottom levels. We have to overhaul it.”

Part of the bill includes a paycheck protection provision, which would require teachers’ unions to seek annual approval from teachers before deducting union dues from their pay checks. Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, said it was unfair to tie the teacher pay raise to anti-teacher and anti-union provisions.

“If these are such innovative ideas for education, then why not run them on their own merit,” Lee said. “Why not have everything stand on their own. Let’s take these and have the full discussion, one item at a time, and not have to force people to decide…that’s unfair to our legislators.”

Fred Albert, the president of the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, told media after the bill was presented that he found the proposed legislation confusing.

“I think they’ve got a lot of homework to do before they bring that before the body for a vote,” Albert said. “Why are we muddling up the pay raise proposal from our governor…now we have all this other stuff that we don’t understand.”

Both Lee and Albert said Senate Republicans did not approach either union for their input on crafting the bill.

A group of teachers from Braxton County were at the Capitol Thursday trying to get the details of the legislation. They had some thoughts on the kind of assistance they need from lawmakers.

Middle school teacher Judith Boyce said the biggest hindrance to teachers is the state’s substance abuse crisis. With sometimes unpredictable home lives or drug abuse problems themselves, it makes it hard for those students to learn and score higher on tests.

“I know that one of the things we need is more training on what to do whenever we have kids coming from homes with substance abuse and who are possibly themselves using substances,” said Boyce said. “We have no idea what to recognize.”

Lee agreed that schools need wraparound services to help provide for student needs so they can more easily learn. He also said the biggest thing the Legislature could do to help teachers is to lower classroom size, not increase it.

“Those are all reforms that are going to help the students,” Lee said. “Tell me how preventing you from taking your dues out helps students? You can’t talk out of both sides of your mouth. If you’re here to help students, then let’s dive into all the research.”

MULTIPLE CHOICE

There are two major provisions of the comprehensive education reform package that also have unions upset but have their own supporters: parents.

The bill also creates the state’s first public charter school system, though it’s more accurate to call it an alternative school system. West Virginia already charters two alternative schools: the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind and the West Virginia National Guard Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy.

Under the public charter school provision, counties could create their own school or join with one or more counties to create a charter school. The bill even allows for virtual charter schools. A commission would have to approve the charter and only counties where student performance is low would be able to set up a charter.

On Wednesday, more than 800 parents and students gathered to kick off the start of National School Choice Week at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. The conservative Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy was one of 11 sponsors that included school choices groups, Christian school organizations and home school associations.

“I think it’s safe to say it was probably the largest celebration of its kind in the state’s history,” said Garrett Ballengee, executive director of Cardinal. “Most people in the state realize that something isn’t working in our education system. I think when you have 800 people come out to celebrate school choice, that’s indictive of the fact that people want options in education. I think this bill does a lot for that.

Other school choice options in the bill include allowing open enrollment in a county school system and across county lines, as well as an education savings account program. Parents would receive, in the form of a debit card, 75 percent of the prior year’s per-pupil tax expenditures to use for tuition and fees at private or home school programs. It would also help pay for textbooks, curriculum, computers, uniforms and educational services.

Jonathan Butcher, a senior policy analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., was at the Capitol Thursday for the committee meeting. A major cheerleader for education savings accounts, Butcher said six states already have similar legislation.

“These accounts allow families to customize their child’s education if they so choose,” Butcher said. “It puts the child’s needs first in foremost in the minds of the parent and the child and what they can do to help that child succeed.”

But Pam White, also a teacher in Braxton County, said the education savings accounts would just drain rural school systems of funding and be ripe for misuse.

“I think that would be a big problem in our county because I can see a lot of the parents using that as an income,” White said. “That leaves us with no funds for those students. We have a big issue with low-income, substance abuse, and grandparents trying to raise their grandkids. It’s just a lower poverty school to where it would be a big issue that would even make the school system harder to financially support.”

CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE

While there may not be total agreement on the education omnibus bill between Republicans, Democrats, teachers, unions and parents, these groups have one thing in common: making sure students have the best education.

“Again, this is about the student first,” Carmichael said. “We have to provide a world-class education to our students. It’s a moral imperative. We will view everything we do through the prism of improving educational performance.”