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House takes up education omnibus bill

Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton, makes a motion to postpone indefinitely the Senate’s education omnibus bill. (Photo Provided)

CHARLESTON — Despite an attempt Tuesday to stop the bill, the House of Delegates received the state Senate’s massive education reform package, vowing to review the legislation in a “deliberate manner.”

The House received a message from the Senate Tuesday morning announcing the passage of Senate Bill 451, the education omnibus bill. The 137-page bill was referred to the House’s education and finance committees.

In a statement shortly after the passage of SB 451, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said he would let the committee process work when looking at the controversial bill.

“With the final passage of the comprehensive education bill by the Senate, House leadership now has a starting point for our work on this bill,” Hanshaw said. “We will fully review this bill in a deliberate manner and will work to build consensus on the best path forward with proposals to improve our state’s education system.”

The sprawling bill passed the Senate Monday 18-16, losing two Republicans in the process. It amends 36 code sections and creates 26 new code sections, all connected by a nonseverability clause which renders the entire bill invalid if a court rules against any of the 62 code sections.

“I don’t particularly care for the fact you have so much in one bill, because if they were as important as everyone claims each of the parts to be, they should be addressed — I believe — separately and passed or not on the merits of each idea in the bill,” said House Minority Leader Tim Miley, D-Harrison.

Some of the provisions of SB 451 include more funding options for county school systems, flexibility over levy authority, and hiring of teachers and county administration staff. It includes pay raises for teachers and school staff, additional pay for math teachers, the ability to do differential pay in counties, teacher tax credits, and the ability to bank annual leave for retirement bonuses.

The sections of the bill getting the most attention are provisions meant to discourage work stoppages, paycheck protection to limit union efforts to collect dues, and creation of public charter schools and education savings accounts.

“There are significant things in there that will have an impact on our education system in the state if they get passed or if they fail,” Miley said. “To have all those items combined into one bill I think suggests not all of the parts of the bill are that appealing to very many. It’s simply an effort to force a yes vote because it contains pay raises in it for teachers and they think they’re putting people in a box or in a corner.”

During the Tuesday morning House floor session, Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton, made a motion to postpone indefinitely any action on SB 451, a procedural move to defeat the bill before a committee can even take the bill up.

“At the end of the day, this bill is a pig,” Sponaugle said. “I don’t care how much lipstick you’re going to put on it, you’re not going to make it any prettier. You’re not going to change the public’s perception of Senate Bill 451. We should vote to postpone indefinitely and go ahead and put this pig to slaughter.”

House Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, made a motion to table Sponaugle’s motion in order to keep the bill alive.

“On the Senate side we’ve heard about how this bill was rushed through,” Summers said. “Now we have an opportunity to send it to several committees and now we don’t want to do that?”

The motion to table Sponaugle’s motion passed 52-44 with four Republican delegates voting with House Democrats, including Delegate Mark Dean, R-Mingo, the vice-chairman of the House Education Committee. Other Republicans voting against the motion were delegates Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock; Tony Paynter, R-Wyoming; and Chris Toney, R-Raleigh.

Even though the motion failed, House Democrats expressed appreciation for Hanshaw choosing to ensure the bill goes through the traditional committee process. SB 451 originated out of the Senate Education Committee Jan. 24, but skipped the Senate Finance Committee last week when the votes for the bill appeared uncertain. Instead, all 34 senators discussed the bill as the Committee of the Whole.

“I’m very comfortable today in knowing that the leadership understands and appreciates and plans to proceed in the usual way of doing business in this body, even though we’re confronted by something very unusual from the Senate,” said Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha. “We want to use our committees for detailed review of ideas that we’ve got as bills.”

The House Education Committee could be looking at SB 451 as soon as this morning.

“I just ask you to trust me and trust members of our leadership team today to make changes that are necessary, to leave the good parts in this bill, and maybe remove the parts that give us a little bit of heartburn,” said House Education Committee Chairman Danny Hamrick, R-Harrison. “Let this bill work through the committee process, and hopefully by the time it comes out it’s something that can get bipartisan support on the floor of this House.”

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