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Using rare maneuver, Democrats kill Senate charter school bill
By Ryan Quinn, The Charleston Gazette
After a bill to allow charter schools in West Virginia appeared on the Senate Education Committee’s agenda a dozen times, Democrats permanently shot it down Monday during its first hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
Howard O’Cull, who worked on the bill and said he’s lobbied for the West Virginia School Board Association since 1978, said the...
Kessler discusses Senate Finance vote to kill charter schools bill
By Jeff Jenkins, WV MetroNews
State Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler used a procedural move Monday to kill the controversial public charter schools bill. The Senate Finance Committee was set to take up the bill (SB14) at its afternoon meeting when Kessler (D-Marshall) said he looked around the room and noticed three Republican members of the committee weren’t there.
So he made a motion...
Homeschooling advocates hope for change in legislation
By Jesse Wright, West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Studies show homeschooling is becoming more popular in the U.S. — a trend that West Virginia is following. Advocates are hoping bills recently introduced in the state Legislature will make homeschooling easier.
There were about 7,000 children home-schooled in West Virginia during the 2010 academic year. That number rose to about 9,000 in 2013,...
Manchin speaks during prevailing wage hearing
By Chris Lawrence, WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the legislature heard a range of opinions during a Thursday public hearing at the Capitol on legislation aimed at changing the provisions of prevailing wage in West Virginia.
Organized labor and construction workers are against the idea of tampering with the mechanism which currently calculates the wage on publicly financed construction projects...
What does ‘right-to-work’ really mean?
By William Hal Gorby
Words have power in political debates. For West Virginians, the people’s very soul was the historic struggle over their “rights” achieved following 40 years of bloody violence.
On June 23, 1933, 2,500 coal miners descended on Charleston for a rally as representatives of 160,000 new UMWA members.State UMWA leader Van Bittner announced “This is our day it is written in the stars that we shall...