Photo courtesy of West Virginia Legislative Photography Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, holds a poster showing the states with charter schools surrounded West Virginia.

CHARLESTON — Even after senate Republicans made changes to the bill, Democratic members of the West Virginia Senate refused to agree to a rules suspension to pass the Student Success Act in one day Saturday, requiring senators to come back this morning and Monday.

The motion to suspend the rules for Senate Bill 1039, the 144-page Student Success Act, failed 18-15 Saturday morning. The bill will be on amendment stage today and up for passage Monday.

In order to pass the Student Success Act in one day, Republicans made a motion to suspend the constitutional rules that require a bill to be read on three separate days. The motion requires four-fifths support — all 20 Republicans and eight Democrats — to agree to the motion.

Senate Republicans announced changes to the Student Success Act on Friday night after days of negotiations with senate Democrats to make the bill palatable to the minority caucus. Some of the changes included removing authority of county boards of education to increase their regular levy rate, removing most of the work stoppage penalties, changing effective dates in the bill, and other technical cleanup.

Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, made a motion earlier Saturday to discharge eight education bills senate Democrats introduced May 20 out of the Senate Education Committee, where the bills were sent, so they could be considered. Some of the bills included funding for a mental health professional in every school, increased flexibility for school innovation zones and vocational and technical training in middle schools

State Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, inquired as to why a meeting of the Senate Education Committee wasn’t called for Saturday in order to review the eight bills.

“We took up two education bills that were yours,” Unger said. “My question is why are we not being more democratic? You say you want to be bipartisan. We have the rest of the day and we could be working on these very good bills.”

“Many of the bills that are put forth from this agenda you mention are incorporated into the Student Success Act,” Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, said in response to Unger’s inquiry.

Some senate Democrats raised concerns about passing another omnibus bill instead of breaking out the 29 proposals in the Student Success Act into smaller bills. The previous attempt at a massive omnibus, Senate Bill 451, died in the House of Delegates in February after disagreements between the two bodies over charter schools and education savings accounts.

State Sen. Paul Hardesty, D-Logan, said the bill was possibly willing to consider the full bill until hearing about a tweet from U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos commenting on the state’s education reform effort.

“West Virginia has an opportunity to improve education for all and put the needs of students first,” DeVos tweeted Friday. “Looking forward to seeing bold moves to offer robust options like charter schools and (education savings accounts) and support great teachers. Let’s get it done.”

“(DeVos) chose to weigh in on politics in the State of West Virginia,” Hardesty said. “That’s sad. I find it utterly disgusting.”

State Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison, asked why they were repeating the mistakes made in SB 451 when the House of Delegates plans to return June 17 and break up into four select committees to tackle individual bills.

“Here we go again,” Romano said. “We’re about to take up a bill that’s almost identical that this body pushed through the regular session only to have it defeated across the hall. We’re about to spend three days talking about this bill when it is my understanding that house plans to take up each of the individual measures in this omnibus bill one by one.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, stressed to his fellow senators and the teachers sitting in the galleries that the Student Success Act in no way was the same bill as SB 451. Takubo said the Republican majority took to heart the concerns of teachers and the public, as well as the report released by the state Department of Education May 1 based on feedback from eight roundtable discussions and online surveys.

“This isn’t the same bill, it’s quite a bit different,” Takubo said. “We’ve had intense efforts to reach across the aisle. We have made this public to everyone involved, the citizens of West Virginia, our colleagues across the aisle. We’ve asked for input. We’ve looked at the Board of education that went statewide. We’ve looked at their input and all the voices, comments and recommendations. Many things have been placed in this bill based on the great input from people across the state.”

The Student Success Act includes provisions to provide more flexibility from state rules and regulations for county school systems. It includes reforms to funding and the school aid formula. It allows for open enrollment across county borders, additional alternative schools, and expansion of the West Virginia National Guard’s Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy.

Once again, the public charter school provisions in SB 1039 is giving senate Democrats and teacher union groups heartburn. It gives county boards of education, the state Board of Education and the state’s colleges and universities authority to authorize public charter schools. It gives the state Board of Education final say over charter denials and revocations. It requires successfully-formed charter schools to be renewed every five years.

State Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, held up a map during his floor speech Saturday showing a sea of red surrounding West Virginia, representing the states that have charter schools.

“These are the states that have authorized in some form or fashion charter schools,” Trump said. “You’ll note there seems to be an island in the middle of the red. It is West Virginia. Do I suggest that charter schools are a magic bullet that are going to solve every problem in West Virginia? No, but I do suggest there is a basis for us to believe we should not be fearful of trying something that’s a little different than what we’ve been done before.”

Gov. Jim Justice called a special session for education betterment starting at the end of the 2019 regular legislative session when his 5 percent pay raise proposal for teachers and school service personnel died as a separate bill in the senate and as a part of SB 451 in the house. The new Student Success Act also includes the 5 percent pay raise proposal.

The senate will resume work today at 2 p.m. on the Student Success Act, a separate bill for education savings accounts, and bill vetoed during the regular session that would create the West Virginia Business-Ready Site program.