Leah Willingham, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

No $465M COVID-19 Education Funds Clawback Justice Says

Gov. Jim Justice announced Friday that West Virginia will not face a clawback of $465 million in COVID-19 money from the U.S. Department of Education, alleviating concerns raised by state lawmakers during the final days of the legislative session in March.

The Republican governor said in a statement that federal officials approved the state’s application for a waiver for the money, which was a portion of the more than a billion dollars in federal aid the state received to help support students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to receive the money, the state needed to keep funding education at the same or a higher level than before the pandemic. In other words, the federal money could supplement existing state investment in education but not replace it.

For federal spending packages passed in 2020 and 2021, that meant a dollar-for-dollar match. For 2022 and 2023, the federal government examined the percentage of each state’s total budget being spent on education.

Those regulations were waived for West Virginia in 2022. As lawmakers worked to finish the state budget in March at the close of the session, the state had not been approved for a waiver for 2023.

The question threw the state’s budget process into disarray and caused uncertainty in the days before the 60-day legislative session, with lawmakers saying they would pass a “skinny budget” and reconvene to address unfinished business in May, when the financial situation is clearer.

Justice said then that his office was negotiating with the federal government and that he expected a positive resolution, citing funds dedicated to school service and teacher pay raises each year since 2018 — when school employees went on strike over conditions in schools.

On Friday, he praised the federal government’s decision, and he said he was never concerned the waiver wouldn’t be approved.
“This announcement came as no surprise and was never a real issue,” Justice said.

He also said the state has dedicated money to building projects and putting teaching aides in classrooms to improve math and reading skills. The state said it spent $8,464 per K-12 pupil in 2024, compared with $7,510 during Justice’s first year as governor in 2017, according to documents submitted to the federal government.

But because state spending increased overall — from $4.9 billion in 2017 to $6.2 billion in 2023 — the percentage marked for education decreased. The key metric eliciting pause from the federal government was an 8% decrease in the education piece of the budget pie — from 51% in 2017 to 43% last year.

Justice said the state’s investment in education speaks for itself: State leaders also approved $150 million for the state’s School Building Authority in the state budget for the fiscal year starting in July.

Female Representation Remains Low In US Statehouses, Particularly Democrats In The South

Nearly 130 years since the first three women were elected to state legislative offices in the U.S., women remain massively underrepresented in state legislatures. In 10 states, women make up less than 25 percent of their state legislatures, according to Rutgers’ Center for American Women in Politics. West Virginia is at the very bottom of that list, having just 16 women in its 134-member Legislature, or just under 12 percent.

Democrat Kayla Young and Republican Patricia Rucker frequently clash on abortion rights and just about everything else in West Virginia’s Legislature, but they agree on one thing: Too few of their colleagues are women, and it’s hurting the state.

“There are exceptions to every single rule, but I think in general, men do kind of see this as their field,” said Rucker, part of the GOP’s Senate supermajority that passed one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans while Young — the lone Democratic woman elected to the House — opposed it.

Nearly 130 years since the first three women were elected to state legislative offices in the U.S., women remain massively underrepresented in state legislatures.

In 10 states, women make up less than 25 percent of their state legislatures, according to Rutgers’ Center for American Women in Politics. West Virginia is at the very bottom of that list, having just 16 women in its 134-member Legislature, or just under 12 percent. That’s compared with Nevada, where women occupy just over 60 percent of state legislative seats. Similar low numbers can be found in the nearby southern states of Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Louisiana.

“It’s absolutely wild to know that more than 50 percent of the population of West Virginia are women, and sometimes I’m the only woman that’s on a committee, period,” said Young, currently the only woman on the House Artificial Intelligence Committee and was one of just two on the House Judiciary Committee when it greenlighted the state’s near total abortion ban.

The numbers of women filling legislative seats across the U.S. have remained low despite women registering and voting at higher rates than men in every presidential election since 1980 — and across virtually every demographic, including race, education level and socioeconomic status.

For the last three decades, voters have demonstrated a willingness to cast ballots for women. But they didn’t have the opportunity to do so because women weren’t running, said Jennifer Lawless, chair of the politics department at the University of Virginia.

“The gender gap in political ambition is just as large now as it was then,” said Lawless, adding that women are much less likely to get recruited to run for office or think they’re qualified to run in what they perceive as a hostile political environment.

And those running in southern, conservative states — still mostly Democratic women, data show — aren’t winning as those states continue to overwhelmingly elect Republicans.

In 2022, 39 women ran as their party’s nominee for state legislative seats in West Virginia, and 26 were Democrats. Only two of the Democratic candidates won, compared to 11 out of 13 of the Republicans.

Debbie Walsh, director of Rutgers’ Center for American Women in Politics, said there’s more money, infrastructure and support for recruiting and running Democratic female candidates. The Republican Party often shies away from talking about what is labeled or dismissed as “identity politics,’” she said.

“It’s a belief in a kind of meritocracy and, ‘the best candidate will rise. And if it’s a woman, great.’ They don’t say, ‘We don’t want women, but if it’s a man, that’s fine, too,’” she said. “There’s no sort of value in and of itself seen in the diversity.”

Larissa Martinez, founder and president of Women’s Public Leadership Network, one of only a few right-leaning U.S. organizations solely supporting female candidates, said identity politics within the GOP is a big hurdle to her work. Part of her organization’s slogan is, “we are pro-women without being anti-man.”

In 2020, small-town public school teacher Amy Grady pulled off a huge political upset when she defeated then-Senate President Mitch Carmichael in West Virginia’s Republican primary, following back-to-back years of strikes in which school employees packed into the state Capitol.

Carmichael took in more than $127,000 in contributions compared to Grady’s self-funded war chest of just over $2,000. Still, Grady won by fewer than 1,000 votes.

“It’s just you’re told constantly, ‘You can’t, you can’t, you can’t do it,’” said Grady, who has now risen through the ranks to become chair of the Senate Education Committee. “And it’s just like, why give it a shot?”

Tennessee state Sen. Charlane Oliver says she didn’t have many resources when she first raised her hand to run for political office. She had to rely on grassroots activism and organizing to win her 2022 election.

Yet securing the seat was just part of the battle. Oliver, a 41-year-old Black Democratic woman, is frequently tasked with providing the only outside perspective inside for the Republican supermajority Legislature.

“They don’t have any incentive to listen to me, but I view my seat as disruption and give you a perspective that you may not have heard before,” she said.

Many male-dominant statehouses have enacted strict abortion bans in GOP-controlled states since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. For many female lawmakers, this trend has meant sharing deeply personal stories surrounding abortion and childbirth.

In South Carolina, the abortion debate resulted in an unlikely coalition of five women senators banding together to filibuster a near-total abortion ban. The group took turns describing pregnancy complications, the dangers surrounding limited access to contraceptives and the reproductive system. The chamber has since gained a sixth female senator, raising the total to three Republicans, two Democrats and one independent. Together they are known as the “sister senators.”

The actions of the original five were met with praise from national leaders, but at home, the consequences have been swift. The Republican women received censures and promises of primary challenges in this year’s elections.

Women also have championed gun policy, education, health care, and housing proposals.

Recently, some states have allowed candidates to make childcare an allowable expense for campaign finance purposes. Young was the sponsor of her state’s law — one of her priorities her first session in the Capitol in the minority party.

During Young’s first term in office, she relied on a family member who would care for her two young children while she was at the state Capitol. But she was left without a solution last year when that caregiver passed away unexpectedly days before the session. Her husband, who works in television production, had to stay home and didn’t work for two months, meaning the family lost out on his income.

Young’s bill won the vote of Rucker, the first Hispanic woman elected to the West Virginia Senate. She too has had to juggle the challenges of being a working mom. She left her job as a teacher to homeschool her five children, and the family relied on her husband’s salary as a pediatric nurse to make ends meet.

“I ran for office because I feel like having that voice is actually really important — someone who lives paycheck to paycheck,” said Rucker, a first-generation U.S. citizen who made the difficult decision to pull her kids. “I’m not here because of a title, I’m not here because of a position, I’m here to do my job, and I want to do the best I can.”

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This story was first published on March 9, 2024. It was updated on March 10, 2024, to correct the number of female state senators in South Carolina. There are currently six, not five.

Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tenn. Associated Press journalist James Pollard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

West Virginia Legislature Ends Session With Pay Raises, Tax Cut And Failure Of Social Issue Bills

West Virginia’s Republican-dominated state Legislature on Saturday concluded a 60-day session marked by budget disputes and controversial social issue bills that advanced but ultimately didn’t go anywhere.

Lawmakers conferenced behind closed doors Saturday to reach an agreement on a budget just under $5 billion, bills that would cut unemployment benefits, a Social Security tax cut and a 5 percent raise for teachers and other state workers, among other legislation. Those proposals now head to the desk of Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who is expected to sign them.

The Social Security cut and pay raises were passed after the budget process was thrown into chaos this week when lawmakers learned Justice’s office was in negotiations with the federal government over a potential $465 million COVID-19 funding clawback.

Lawmakers debated several iterations of the budget before coming to a final decision, leaving out a number of priority items including a tax credit to make child care more affordable for families and money for a new agriculture lab at West Virginia State University.

Lawmakers intend to meet for a special session to review those items in May, when the situation with the U.S. Department of Education is clearer, the legislative leadership said.

Lawmakers additionally passed bills Saturday to allow the sale of raw milk with a warning label about the increased risk of foodborne illness and allow virtual public school students and private school students to opt out of mandatory vaccines.

Another successful bill would give public school teachers the option to teach intelligent design, the theory holding that certain features of life forms are so complex they can best be explained by an origin from an intelligent higher power, not an undirected process such as natural selection. Intelligent design is overwhelmingly regarded as a religious belief by the scientific community and not a scientific theory.

Social issues dominated most of the conversation during the session, but many did not cross the finish line.

As the clock approached a midnight Sunday deadline to pass bills, Democratic Del. Mike Pushkin dragged out discussion on a proposed constitutional amendment that would have been placed on the ballot to prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting in West Virginia elections, which is already illegal.

“I just don’t think it’s necessary to change the constitution that’s already in state code, something that isn’t taking place. It’s hard enough to get our citizens to vote,” Pushkin said, checking his watch.

“I would encourage all citizens to vote. Think of who you’re voting for when you cast that ballot,” said Pushkin, one of 11 Democrats in the 100-member House, just as time ran out.

Earlier in the session, the House of Delegates passed a bill to make schools, public libraries and museums criminally liable for distributing or displaying “obscene” materials to children. The Senate never took up that bill or failed bills passed by the House that would have restricted healthcare for transgender adolescents and allow teachers and other school staff with certain training to carry guns on school campuses.

The Senate passed a bill that would have made a video on fetal development produced by an anti-abortion group required viewing in public schools, but the measure failed to advance in the House.

Time also ran out Saturday for House lawmakers to vote on final passage of a “Women’s Bill of Rights,” which was almost sure to pass. Democrats labeled the proposal a dystopian bill that would give women no additional rights while enabling the GOP to suppress transgender people.

The legislation said “equal” does not mean “same” or “identical” with respect to equality of the sexes. The proposed wording in state statutes and official public policies would define a person’s sex as determined at birth without allowing substitutions of gender equity terms. The bill also would establish that certain single-sex environments, such as athletics, locker rooms and bathrooms, are not discriminatory.

The bill was championed by Republican women in the Legislature, including Del. Kathie Hess Crouse, who said “radical feminists” have “sought a world in which men and women are treated exactly the same in every single circumstance, regardless of physical differences.”

“The Women’s Bill of Rights aims to halt this radical agenda,” she said, speaking on the floor in support of the legislation.

The unemployment bill, which was rushed through the legislative process in the final days of session after hours of debate, left some lawmakers confused, even those who chose to support it.

The bill would increase work search requirements for unemployed people receiving benefits and freeze the rates those individuals are paid at the current maximum of $622 a week, instead of a system adjusting with inflation. People also would be able to work part-time while receiving unemployment and searching for full-time work. Current average benefits are around $420 a week.

The bill was a compromise from an earlier version of the legislation that would have reduced the number of allowable weeks for unemployment benefits from 26 to 24 and started benefits at 70% of the recipient’s average weekly wage before losing work and reducing benefits over the amount of time the person is out of work without getting a new job.

Supporters say they were concerned about the long-term solvency of the state’s unemployment fund. But Del. Democratic Del. Shawn Fluharty said the bill sends a bad message.

“Here we are just year in and year out finding ways to chip away at who actually built this state: the blue collar worker,” Fluharty said.

The Social Security tax cut bill follows a law signed in 2019 that cut income tax on Social Security benefits over three years for the state’s lowest earners, defined as those making less than $100,000 filing jointly and $50,000 for a single person.

The proposal approved by the Legislature Saturday would eliminate the tax for everyone else, also over a three-year period. The tax would be cut by 35 percent this year, retroactive to Jan. 1, and 65 percent in 2025. The tax would be phased out completely by 2026.

W.Va. Advances Bill That Would Require Age Verification For Internet Pornography

People in West Virginia would need to present some form of state-sponsored identification before accessing internet pornography under a bill that advanced Monday in the Republican-dominated state House of Delegates.

Sponsors say the bill, similar to one passed in Virginia last year, is meant to prevent children from accessing harmful explicit material. The proposal passed the House Judiciary Committee with little discussion and will now be considered by the full chamber.

The legislation would require companies with “materials harmful to minors” making up a “substantial portion” — or a little over 33% — of its website offerings to perform ”reasonable age verification methods.”

Material harmful to minors is defined as content that the “average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient interest.”

The bill also provides a detailed list of sexual acts that depiction of would be restricted.

Lead sponsor GOP Del. Geno Chiarelli said the 33% provision is meant to “act as a buffer” for social media websites like X, formerly known as Twitter, that host adult content, but pornography is not the “intent of the website.”

“That protects us from having to go after, you know, requiring social media companies to require the same type of verification that you would of Pornhub or something like that,” he said.

The company would not be allowed to retain any identifying material about users once they prove they’re 18 or older. The proposal would not apply to content published by news organizations.

People would be able to file civil lawsuits against companies that violate the proposed law.

Judge: W.Va. Can’t Require Incarcerated Atheist To Participate In Religious Programming

A federal judge in West Virginia has ruled that the state corrections agency can’t force an incarcerated atheist and secular humanist to participate in religiously-affiliated programming to be eligible for parole.

In a sweeping 60-page decision issued Tuesday, Charleston-based U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin said Saint Marys Correctional Center inmate Andrew Miller “easily meets his threshold burden of showing an impingement on his rights.”

The state’s “unmitigated actions force Mr. Miller to choose between two distinct but equally irreparable injuries,” the judge wrote. He can either “submit to government coercion and engage in religious exercise at odds with his own beliefs,” or “remain incarcerated until at least April 2025.”

Goodwin issued a preliminary injunction requiring West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials to remove completion of a state-run and federally-funded residential substance abuse program from Miller’s parole eligibility requirements. The agency did not return a request for comment Thursday.

Miller filed suit in a federal district court in April alleging the state is forcing Christianity on incarcerated people and has failed to accommodate repeated requests to honor his lack of belief in God.

The suit claimed Miller encountered “religious coercion” in June 2021 when he entered the Pleasants County correctional facility. Miller is serving a one- to 10-year, nondeterminative sentence for breaking and entering.

Substance use was not a factor in his offense, but Miller was enrolled in the program because he is in recovery from addiction.

He alleged the federally-funded substance abuse treatment program — which is a requirement for his parole consideration — is “infused with Christian practices,” including Christian reading materials and mandated Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, where the Serenity and Lord’s Prayer are recited.

Due to the religious elements of the program, Miller withdrew from it after five days at Saint Marys. Prior to incarceration, he received secular treatment and maintained his sobriety for four years, according to his suit.

Multiple courts have determined that step-based programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are religious-based programs because they are predicated on the existence of a higher power or a God. Steps ask participants to turn their “lives over to the care of God” and encourage prayer to improve “conscious contact with God.”

In the “Big Book,” the foundational document of these programs, “Chapter 4: We Agnostics” tells atheists and agnostics that they are “doomed to alcoholic death” unless they “seek Him.” The chapter characterizes non-believers as “handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.”

In his decision, Goodwin said although West Virginia’s “longstanding” program has never faced judicial scrutiny, other courts have found them to contain “such substantial religious components that governmentally compelled participation” violates the First Amendment.

“I have been provided with no evidence that West Virginia’s program is any less religious or less coercive than the programs invalidated in other jurisdictions,” Goodwin said.

The Parole Board Panel interviewed Miller three times and declined to grant him parole. Miller alleged that his failure to complete the program contributed significantly to the Board’s decision to deny him parole, something the state did not dispute.

“Although Mr. Miller has no entitlement to parole, the record strongly suggests that he would already have been released, but for maintaining his objections to an unconstitutional policy,” Goodwin said.

Geoffrey T. Blackwell, Litigation Counsel for American Atheists who represented Miller along with nonprofit legal services organization Mountain State Justice, on Wednesday called the ruling “a complete vindication of Andrew’s rights under the law.”

“Without Andrew’s willingness to take on this fight, West Virginia would continue to unconstitutionally impose religion on people in its corrections system,” he said. American Atheists is an organization that fights for atheists’ civil liberties and advocates the separation of church and state in the U.S.

Lesley Nash, an attorney with Mountain State Justice, said the organization is pleased the court protected Miller’s rights when the state did not.

“No one should be forced to set aside their moral or religious creed as a precondition of their parole,” Nash said.

Emergency Room Physician Selected As West Virginia’s 1st Opioid Settlement Board Member

A physician with decades of experience working in emergency rooms in the southern West Virginia coalfields was on Wednesday named the first board director of a nonprofit tasked with distributing much of the state’s over $1 billion in opioid settlement money.

Dr. Tony Kelly, an emergency physician with around 40 years of experience working in hospitals in historic coal mining communities like Beckley and Welch, will be the inaugural director of the 11-member West Virginia First Foundation board, according to unofficial results shared during a public meeting at the Raleigh County Courthouse in Beckley. Official results will be certified within a week.

The private foundation, recognized by the state Legislature and Gov. Jim Justice earlier this year, will distribute just under three-quarters of the settlement money won by the state in lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors in West Virginia, home to the nation’s highest overdose death rate. Around a quarter will go directly to local communities and 3% will remain in trust.

All funds must be used to abate the opioid crisis, like evidence-based addiction treatment, recovery and prevention programs, or supporting law enforcement efforts to curtail distribution.

Kelly, who spoke at the meeting over zoom Wednesday, said “day in and day out” southern West Virginia emergency rooms are “ground zero” for the opioid crisis.

“We make more addicts every day than die,” he said. “And lots die every day. Whatever we’ve done in the past and what I’ve been involved with for the last 40 years has not worked well.”

Kelly said he’s looking forward to hearing about new ideas and strategies to curbing drug use: “There’s a whole generation that’s in jeopardy.”

Other nominees for southern West Virginia’s representative were Mercer County Commissioner Greg Puckett and Drema Hill, the vice president for community engagement and development at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Representatives from 64 local governments in southern West Virginia had the opportunity to vote Wednesday for a director to represent them on the board. Four people made nominations at the meeting and were given three minutes to speak in support of their chosen candidate, and 40 total voted. Kelly was nominated twice.

Kelly was nominated by Raleigh County Day Report Center Director James Miller, who said Kelly’s name is “probably familiar to a lot of people” in the area because of his work in local hospitals, dating back to 1982 in Raleigh County and “just about everywhere else around here you can imagine.”

“I think he would be a wonderful advocate and ambassador for this area,” Miller said before the vote.

Over the past four years, drug manufacturers, distribution companies, pharmacies and other companies with roles in the opioid business have reached settlements totaling more than $50 billion with governments.

While the biggest amounts are in nationwide settlements, West Virginia — perhaps the state hardest hit by the prescription drug overdose crisis — has been aggressive in bringing its own lawsuits and reaching more than a dozen settlements.

In May, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced that the state had settled with Kroger for $68 million over its role in distributing highly addictive prescription painkillers in West Virginia. Walgreens settled in January for $83 million. Walmart and CVS settled with the state last September; Walmart agreed to a settlement of just over $65 million and CVS for $82.5 million.

Last August, Rite Aid settled for up to $30 million to resolve similar litigation.

Morrisey, who attended Wednesday’s vote, said the formation of the Foundation’s board and getting money out to communities is where “healing begins.”

The West Virginia Foundation will be headed by an executive director appointed by Morrisey and approved by its board of directors. A rapid search is underway now to select an executive director within the next month or two. The state has hired the search firm DRiWaterstone Human Capital, based in Arlington, Virginia, to help identify candidates.

Five members of the Foundation’s board of directors will be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. Six board directors will be elected as Kelly was to represent six regions throughout the state.

The 11-member board must be in place by July 17, 60 days after the Foundation’s articles of incorporation were filed with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office.

The meeting in Beckley Wednesday was the first of such meetings, which are scheduled to take place over the course of the next few weeks.

Local governments in the eastern panhandle will convene in Berkeley County, in central West Virginia’s Kanawha County and in northwestern West Virginia’s Wood County on July 12

Northern panhandle officials are meeting in Ohio County and northern West Virginia officials are meeting in Monongalia County on July 13.