Hoppy's Commentary for Friday
Talkline Host Hoppy Kercheval
Not long ago Gov. Manchin called a special session for this month just to work on education. A group of lawmakers along with education leaders met multiple times and worked for hours to try to reach consensus on significant changes.
Gov. Manchin took the suggestions and put some of them before lawmakers. But when the special session wrapped up this week lawmakers had barely made a dent; creative ideas were tossed aside or reduced to pilot projects.
The only modest success was the agreement to put $1 million toward a program to try to reach disruptive students in lower grades, but even that is just a pilot project.
Charter schools, which more states are encouraging as an alternative to failing schools, never got off the ground in the special session. Gov. Manchin, apparently in a bow to opposition in the House of Delegates, didn’t even put charter schools on the call.
A proposal to offer incentive pay for teachers who filled high need positions, such as teaching in poor or minority schools or filling math or science jobs, was stripped by lawmakers. Teacher unions oppose incentive pay, instead favoring higher base pay.
There was also no change to the dysfunctional teacher evaluation process. Currently, the vast majority of teachers only evaluated the first few years on the job. Reformers wanted annual evaluations that would reward teachers who perform well and help poor teachers improve or move on.
Much of what happened—or didn’t happen—during the special session escaped public scrutiny. State Senator Erik Wells (D-Kanawha), one of the more aggressive education reformers in the state, said the focus appeared to be elsewhere because of the controversy over the replacement to Sen. Byrd.
“Whatever’s on the front burner takes precedent,” Wells said on Metronews Talkline Thursday, “and, of course, the whole election process was on the front burner and the education issue was on the back burner.”
Wells called the session a “dud.”
West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee was more upbeat. “There were some good discussions,” Lee said. “We have made some progress and now we have the opportunity to go into the regular session and do these things.”
Well, maybe. Lawmakers have already missed one excellent opportunity with the special session.
Public education in this country is going through dramatic changes. In some communities, ground-up reforms like charter schools are taking root. In others, entire states are using money and motivation from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to break up the old model.
State government and education leaders in West Virginia are struggling mightily to keep up. Unfortunately virtually nothing happened in the just-completed special session that contributes to that effort