Education

The House of Delegates will consider the following bills (which were passed by the Senate this week) on 6/17:

• Omnibus education bill SB 1039

• SB 1040, which “establishes Education Savings Accounts in the amount of $3,900 annually for students who were previously enrolled in public schools but opted to leave the public system to utilize a voucher.”

AFT-West Virginia explains that SB 1039 “similar to its predecessor SB 451 that was defeated earlier this year, contains a wide variety of helpful and harmful provisions for public schools.”  Significant provisions of the bill include the following:

• “Allows for an unlimited number of charter schools, subject to authorization by local boards of education, or the state board for counties that choose not to be an authorizer. Charter boards authorized to contract with “any third party” for “any service, activity, or undertaking” necessary for its program.

• Effectively eliminates long-standing seniority protections designed to prevent nepotism and cronyism in employment practices.

• Expands the capacity and adds a second location of the Mountaineer Challenge Academy.

• Mandates county boards establish open enrollment policies.

• Increases the time that counselors must spend on direct counseling work.

• Codifies retaliatory anti-strike measures, including prohibiting county superintendents from closing schools in anticipation of a strike, withholds pay during a strike, and bans participation in extracurricular activities during strikes.

• Adjusts funding formula for counties with enrollment below 1,400.

• Increases salaries for teachers by $2,120 per year, and for service personnel by $115 per month.

• Increases salaries for certain math and special education teachers and eliminates equity pay provisions, which will lead to greater pay disparities.

• Provides a $500 bonus for teachers who have not used more than 4 days of any leave during the year.

• Other provisions relating to collaboration time, class size, professional development, levy rates, tax credits for purchasing education materials, Innovation in Education schools, student promotion, truancy, and liability insurance coverage.”

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Education

The Senate will consider an omnibus education bill on Saturday, 6/1.  The bill “would strike a devastating blow to employment protections and proposes even more charter schools than the original Omnibus bill.” West Virginians are asked to go to the state Capitol on Saturday, 6/1 at 9:00 am; information about the event can be found here.

Building Trades Workers

The Midwest Policy Institute recently released a national report entitled, “The Impact of Repealing West Virginia’s Prevailing Wage Law - Economic Effects on the Construction Industry and Discal Effects on School Construction Costs,” this week. The report found, “when adjusting for inflation, hourly wages for carpenters, electricians and operating engineers have fallen, and that wage growth for construction trades in West Virginia was between 1 percent and 8 percent slower than neighboring states that have prevailing wage laws. Also, the number of registered apprenticeships fell by 28 percent relative to neighboring states with prevailing wage laws, and that on-the-job construction worker injury rate increased by almost the same percentage.“

Education

The leaders of AFT-WV, WVSSPA, and WVEA held a press conference this week to “call on Governor Jim Justice to rescind his proclamation for a special session on education. Citing the findings from the report issued last week by the WV Department of Education following the eight public forums held across the state in March and April on education reform and corresponding survey, the three education groups believe it’s a waste of taxpayer money for the legislative leadership to pursue initiatives that the public does not want.”