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Few Happy with State's Shot at School Reform
Only a handful of minor reforms passed during the special session that was supposed to focus on education.
By Walt Williams
CHARLESTON -- What was supposed to be one of the most important issues state lawmakers took up this year went out with a fizzle in July, leaving no one involved very happy about the results and the state unlikely to capture millions of federal dollars for public schools.
School reform became the top priority for Gov. Joe Manchin after the conclusion of the Legislature’s regular session in March. Citing figures that show West Virginia students were lagging behind their peers in certain areas, he asked the state Board of Education to come up with a series of school reforms to bring before lawmakers, which they did.
But in the end, only a handful of relatively minor reforms passed. Advocates of school choice didn’t get any language opening the way for charter schools or giving school administrators more flexibility to replace bad teachers. School employee unions didn’t get laws helping to reduce class size or raising the starting wages of teachers, which are the lowest in the nation.
Manchin struck a conciliatory tone immediately following the conclusion of the state’s second special session July 21. That tone was largely gone a nearly a week later, with the governor saying the session’s outcome was “very disappointing.”
“The bottom line is – the results are – we have not performed,” he said. “...The taxpayers in West Virginia have come forth: They have always been at the top of the national average in paying to educate their children. The system and all of us involved in this system have failed them.”
Failed System
Manchin brought eight school reform proposals to state lawmakers in May in an attempt to improve student performance in West Virginia’s schools.
That performance is decidedly mixed. West Virginia students generally perform worse on their ACTs and SATs than their national peers, although West Virginia students take the ACT in much higher numbers than much of the nation.
Research conducted for the state Board of Education shows those students not only lag behind their national peers in math and science scores, they also lag behind those in many industrialized nations as well.
And many students will go on to enter the public college system with one of the highest dropout rates in the country, with fewer than half of four-year students graduating and only one in five two-year students graduating within 150 percent of normal program length, according to data collected by NCHEMS Information Center.
The result is a state population with the lowest educational attainment in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. Business leaders, economists and policymakers say that lack of education makes it extremely difficult for the state to compete in the modern-day economy.
West Virginia isn’t the only state facing student performance problems. Last year, President Barack Obama unveiled the Race to the Top program, which rewards states with federal money if they make changes the administration believes are needed to improve schools.
West Virginia lost out on the first round of Race to the Top funding largely because it didn’t have a law allowing charter schools, which are public schools run under contracts with states or school districts. Under the contract, charter schools can waive certain state mandates in return for improved school performance.
Charter for Success?
Manchin, following the Board of Education’s lead, proposed a bill allowing public schools to adopt some aspects of charter schools found in other states, but it did not go as far as actually creating charter schools.
The bill and most of Manchin’s other proposals died during the first special session in May thanks in large part of union opposition. The state’s school unions hold particular sway in the state House of Delegates, where most of the legislation died.
Lawmakers, union leaders and others with a stake in the education system spent the following months crafting compromise bills. But Manchin largely rejected those proposals when he called lawmakers into special session in July, bringing forward many of his original proposals.
What ultimately passed was a watered-down agenda creating pilot programs for academic achievement and alternative schools and new language allowing for school committees to foster teacher collaboration.
Charter schools were not on the agenda the second time around. That was a disappointment for advocates of the schools.
“It was kind of a waste, I think,” Ben Adams of West Virginians for Education Reform said. Still, a handful of national studies have questioned just how successful charter schools are at improving student performance. At least two national studies concluded they were no better than regular public schools in educating most students, although there are indications they do a better job with poor students from urban areas.
The latter finding is important for Adams, who believes the debate is really about families having the choice to exercise the option if they want.
“I hope that the talks continue,” he said. “I hope we can push forward. (But) I think it is going to take time we do not have.”
Union Concerns
The conflict between school unions and policymakers over education reform is one that has played out in many states since the launch of Race to the Top.
The difference in West Virginia might be the strength of the opposition.
“The unions in West Virginia … are some of the most powerful state teachers unions in the nation,” said Marc Oestreich, legislative specialist for the conservative Heartland Institute.
Manchin said the unions are doing their job in representing their members. But he said that hasn’t been necessarily working for school children.
“We have today (in school law), that was codified in the ’70s, is not what’s needed today to get the results we need,” he said. “Other states that have collective bargaining are making adjustments much better than we are, and I believe that’s where the problem lies.
“The protection of (state) law … gives our unions a much better comfort level than sitting down bargaining with the facts we have in front of us and the changes that need to be made,” he added.
Union officials, however, said the proposals lacked what they saw as scientifically proven methods for improving school performance.
They noted studies that indicate that lowering the numbers of students for every teacher improves academic success. They also want higher salaries for teachers so the state can compete against other states for the best-qualified personnel and career ladders that reward teachers for continuing their educations.
“I don’t think there is anybody who doesn’t think we need reform,” said Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia. “It is just the kind of reform we need.”
Hale said she was not entirely opposed to charter schools, which could be run under collective-bargaining agreements. Her challenge to advocates is to produce the proof they are the answer the state is seeking.
“I’m not convinced, based on the research, that’s the answer where we should be going in terms of reform,” she said.
Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, agreed.
“The data supporting charter schools is a very mixed bag,” he said. “There are a very large number of charter schools that are not doing well.”
Another factor likely working against school reform during the July special session was legislation setting up a special election to replace the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd. Lawmakers spent most of their time in debates over elections law during their time at the state Capitol.
Lee said he would like to see education reform taken up again in next year’s regular session, when lawmakers have more time to work on the issue.
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