State lawmakers again wrestle with education
By Lawrence Messina
The Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Early intervention for younger disruptive students and redrawn school collaborative teams were among the education-related topics under debate Monday during West Virginia's ongoing special legislative session.
In a repeat of May's derailed special session on education, the Senate passed all seven school-related bills on the agenda. But the House Education Committee killed one of those measures while scaling back others.
The bill voted down Monday proposed a sweeping overhaul of the state's response to low-performing schools. Among other provisions, the measure would have revised the process for transferring administrators in and out of such troubled schools. It also set the eventual goal of a 90 percent high school graduation rate.
Chiding that would-be benchmark, Delegate Dave Pethtel also argued during Monday's debate that it would hand too much power to the state Department of Education and its performance auditing office.
"All this bill is going to do is put more work on teachers, administrators, principals, superintendents," said Pethtel, D-Wetzel and a teacher. "If you want to know why people are leaving the system, it's because of bills like this."
More than half the committee's 25 members are current or retired school personnel.
The panel also sent a Senate-passed measure offering alternative ways to certify teachers to a subcommittee. It reduced an already diluted proposal to increase the frequency of student health screenings by making it a recommendation.
Six of the education measures revise bills that bogged down in May amid disagreements between the House and Senate and active opposition from groups representing teachers and school service workers. Those differences remain, said Judy Hale, president of the West Virginia Federation of Teachers.
"I don't see any need to rush through these controversial bills," Hale said Monday. "Nothing could be put in place before the next school year, anyway."
The seventh item is new to the mix, and may have the best chance of final passage. It would allow up to five pilot programs statewide that would try to divert and assist disruptive elementary and middle school students. Alternative settings for such students are now largely confined to high schools.
The WVFT and the rival West Virginia Education Association suggested the measure to the House-Senate working group that helped prepare the ongoing session's agenda. It passed the Senate unanimously on Sunday and is headed toward a final House vote.
The House Finance Committee added a bill to the agenda Monday that would provide $1 million for those pilot projects.
Of the other education-centered bills advancing, one nearing a House vote would allow schools to reconfigure some of the internal committees that help guide such areas as technology and strategic planning.
Other bills on the agenda include a measure that would give the nonprofit foundations for West Virginia and Marshall universities another year to invest some funds independent of the state treasurer. Another bill would extend the pilot program meant to aid military and other overseas absentee voters. A third would continue the existing process for family court appeals.
Manchin also expanded the session agenda to include a funding bill meant to supplement the current budgets of an array of state agencies and programs.