Government Story Archives - Page 245 of 435 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

A Look At Education Challenges And Proposals

On this episode of The Legislature Today, from school safety to student success, there has already been a lot of discussion around the state’s educational system this legislative session. Education Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with two West Virginia teachers to discuss the state of our schools and some of the proposed changes.

On this episode of The Legislature Today, from school safety to student success, there has already been a lot of discussion around the state’s educational system this legislative session. Education Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with two West Virginia teachers to discuss the state of our schools and some of the proposed changes.

Also, more than 70 opponents of House Bill 2007 testified in the West Virginia House of Delegates Thursday morning. Only two witnesses spoke in support. The bill would limit gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.

Following that nearly two-hour public hearing, House Democrats tried to amend the bill. One amendment would have forbidden all elective surgeries, like rhinoplasty or breast augmentation. This amendment and another Democrat-proposed amendment failed along party lines.

Finally, a second public hearing in the House pushed back against House Bill 2883, which would deliver $500 million in COVID-19 relief funds to the governor for economic development projects.

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The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.

Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Limits On Trans Youth Medical Care Move Through House

After a nearly two-hour public hearing on a bill that would prohibit transgender youth from obtaining gender affirming medical procedures, House Democrats tried to amend House Bill 2007.

After a nearly two-hour public hearing on a bill that would prohibit transgender youth from obtaining gender-affirming medical procedures, House Democrats tried to amend House Bill 2007.

Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, proposed an amendment that would forbid all minors from having cosmetic surgeries.

“Is this the first instance of prohibiting a procedure specifically for a minor?” she said. “I guess, can minors get a nose job? Can they get a rhinoplasty as long as their parents consent to it, whether it’s medical or cosmetic?”

Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, voiced concerns that this would ban children from receiving care for cosmetic issues that were more serious.

“I don’t think that this is as well thought through as the delegate thought,” he said. “Because I think there’s a lot of care out there that is cosmetic in nature, that is not medically necessary. But I think a lot of us in here would agree, I want a kid that’s got the potential to solve a cleft palate problem to be able to solve it and that stuff still happens here in West Virginia as well. So I’d urge rejection.”

Young responded that Steele’s concerns were unfounded.

“I did a quick Google [search] and it says cleft palate surgery is medically necessary,” she said. “And I’m Googling it because I’m not a doctor, which is why I don’t want to be making people’s health care decisions that only a couple of us as doctors can, and those are the only ones who should be making health care decisions between patients and people. I hope you’ll support my amendment, because if we’re going to protect kids, we should protect all of them, not just the straight ones. If you want to say the kid should be allowed to get boob jobs, I guess you could vote no. So I guess we’ll see.”

Young’s amendment failed by a vote of 12 to 87, along party lines. House Bill 2007 is expected to be on third reading in the House on Friday.

Lawmakers Hear From Medical Experts In Public Hearing On Trans Bill

It was the first time medical experts testified on a bill that would restrict gender-affirming treatments for transgender youth.

The West Virginia House of Delegates held a public hearing Thursday on House Bill 2007. It was the first time medical experts testified on a bill that would restrict gender-affirming treatments for transgender youth.

Several state legislatures have introduced bills that limit surgery and hormone therapy for anyone under 18.

Major medical associations oppose such legislation, including HB 2007.

“The bill is dangerous,” said Dr. Allison Holstein, a representative from the American Academy of Pediatrics in West Virginia. “It’s an intrusion on the physician-patient relationship and the ability of physicians to provide care that is evidence-based for our patients.”

The bill’s supporters say its purpose is to protect young people from irreversible harm. But health professionals who work with transgender youth said the bill would do more harm than good. That includes Hannah McCoy, a crisis counselor.

“In my time as a crisis counselor, I heard countless pleas from trans kids begging to be seen, begging to be supported, begging to be affirmed in their identity, so much so that they felt death was their only escape,” McCoy said. “These children are tired and we are failing them.”

Dr. Jonathan Lucas-Neel practices family medicine at Charleston Area Medical Center. He said gender-affirming care is well supported by medicine.

“Creating laws that serve to stand between doctors and their patients only decrease access to care, only frighten people from seeking out medical care. This bill makes our state a more dangerous place and not a healthier one,” Lucas-Neel said. “Gender affirming care is based upon years of evidence and it is life saving.”

One supporter of HB 2007, Braden Roten, noted the nationwide push for similar legislation.

“I just want to say that this, despite the crowd opposing this bill, this is a red state,” he said. “And there’s a big push in the conservative movement for this bill. So if you don’t vote for this bill, we will vote you out.”

Samuel Green, coordinator for Marshall University’s suicide prevention organization and vice president of Huntington Pride, said the state’s transgender youth would remember, too.

“We know that West Virginia has the highest rate of trans youth in the nation,” Green said. “And you will have to reckon with them whenever they become voting age.”

But even opponents conceded HB 2007 is likely to pass the House.

Senate Education Discusses Financial Literacy, Free Period Products

The Senate Education Committee started the day off with a lively discussion of several topics, including history and hygiene.

Senate Bill 216 would require all schools to instruct students on the Holocaust and other genocides.

Although there was brief discussion around the need to define the term “genocide,” much of the debate and ensuing amendments to the bill related to concerns about government overreach into private education.

Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, argued the bill exacerbated an imbalance of creating requirements for secular schools, but not for homeschooling or other alternative education programs.

“What we’re adding on to I’m fine with, I have no problem,” Roberts said. “I’m thrilled, except for the forcing of the private schools to do these things when, by the way, we have twice as many homeschoolers in the state of West Virginia as we do private school students. We don’t do those things with all of the others. This is a singling out, is where I have the problem.”

Roberts proposed an amendment to strike the words, “private, parochial, and denominational” from the bill, which was adopted.

Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, proposed another amendment that would require all public schools to teach financial literacy.

“The basic understanding of a checking account and banking and how a mortgage works, how a car payment works; those kinds of things, I think are things that somehow some of our children are, as they leave public schools, are not prepared to have knowledge in those areas, and those are decisions they’re having to make that can really affect them,” Oliverio said.

State Superintendent David Roach testified that West Virginia schools do teach financial literacy and have for years but conceded that there is nothing in the state code requiring it be taught. The amendment also passed.

A committee substitute of Senate Bill 216 was reported to the full Senate with the recommendation that it pass.

Free Period Products

The committee also took up Senate Bill 489, which would require all county boards of education to provide free feminine hygiene products to students in grades three through 12.

In recent surveys from the Alliance for Period Supplies, a nonprofit sponsored by Kotex, more than two in five people with periods say they have struggled to purchase period products due to lack of income at some point in their life, often leading to missed work and school. The surveys also show COVID-19 has only exacerbated the issue of access.

Sen. David Stover, R-Wyoming, voiced his support for the bill. As a teacher for more than 20 years, Stover said he saw firsthand the need for period products in schools.

“What I ended up doing for the last 10 or 12 years I taught, any two or three of the female students that I knew, and knew their moms – who I probably taught 20 years earlier – I just donated for 500 bucks,” Stover said.

“I said, ‘Here’s the fund, you and your mothers figure out where this will be stored. You don’t need to do anything, we’ll kind of know when you get up and go to that particular file cabinet.’ It was a godsend that that could happen. It would be a bigger godsend because it ended up being that students from every teacher in the building would interrupt my class then. So you need to do that in a central way. This could have been done a long time ago.”

If passed, West Virginia would join 16 other states including neighboring Maryland and Virginia in requiring period products in schools.

Senate Bill 489 was also reported to the full Senate with the recommendation that it pass.

Results Of Focus Groups

At the end of the meeting, the Senators heard a joint presentation from the state’s two education employee organizations.

American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia President Fred Albert and West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee presented some of the findings from six focus groups the organizations conducted across the state in late November and early December 2022 to collect community input on the factors that will help improve student achievement.

They reported the major finding was schools simply need more resources, closely followed by concerns of discipline, teacher compensation and academic freedom.

Budget Surpluses, Taxes And Recycling Plastics On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Government Reporter Randy Yohe spoke with Gov. Jim Justice during Wednesday night’s episode of The Legislature Today. We listen to part of that conversation where the governor discussed budget surpluses and tax reductions.

On this West Virginia Morning, Government Reporter Randy Yohe spoke with Gov. Jim Justice during Wednesday night’s episode of The Legislature Today. We listen to part of that conversation where the governor discussed budget surpluses and tax reductions.

Also, in this show, the Allegheny Front, based in Pittsburgh, shares its latest story about recycling plastics.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Focus Groups Identify Issues Causing W.Va’s Low NAEP Scores

he Solutions for Success focus groups were initiated in response to the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test scores that ranked West Virginia near the bottom of the list. A series of focus groups were held in Morgantown, Wheeling, Charleston, Beckley and Martinsburg.

The Solutions for Success focus groups were initiated in response to the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test scores that ranked West Virginia near the bottom of the list.

A series of focus groups were held in Morgantown, Wheeling, Charleston, Beckley and Martinsburg.

Participants in the forum included teachers, parents, students and even a few lawmakers. Their mission: identify areas of critical need to improve educational outcomes in the state.

“We knew that this would be the first step in identifying the greatest strengths and challenges in our public schools,” said American Federation of Teachers-WV President Fred Albert.

He was joined by West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee at a joint press conference on Wednesday.

Lee said 66 percent of respondents identified the need for more certified educators. He said more than 1,500 classrooms across the state currently operate without a properly certified teacher present and the state is losing educators to bordering states, like Virginia, for higher pay. Public school shortages are across the board and include school bus drivers, kitchen staff and other school personnel.

To resolve the teacher shortage, the focus groups called for an increase in educator pay and more funding for public schools.

“We heard the governor say in the State of the State [address] that he was proposing another pay raise. We saw the bill that moved out of the House Education [Committee] that brought beginning salaries to $44,000 and it gave an increase to our service professionals so there is some movement; now let’s get it across the finish line.”

The second highest area of concern identified by 37 percent of respondents was discipline, a problem that can lead to harassment, bullying and an unsafe environment.

Twenty five percent of focus group participants said they would like to see schools hiring more counselors, therapists and mental health support professionals. In a state where families are impacted heavily by an opioid epidemic, Lee said hiring these support staff would be the first step to help address behavioral problems.

“If we’re hiring these to address the mental and emotional needs of our students, then we can reach out to the parents and guardians and the community, Lee said. “It’s a multi-pronged mission to do this, and if we address all of those then we can make real significant progress.”

Also of high importance: community, parent and student engagement. Lee said programs like Communities in Schools are a good start but would like to see the program expanded to offer parents or guardians an opportunity to engage with educators. He said this will help parents hone skills lost over the years so they can better assist their children.

“Student achievement levels are highest when there’s a coordinated effort between the home and school environment,” Lee said.

Lee conceded that time, resources and funding are needed to make real change.

American Federation of Teachers-WV President Albert said bills in both the House and Senate that address support in early grade classrooms are encouraging. One of them includes Senate Bill 274. Titled the “Third Grade Success Act,” the bill enacts several changes to how literacy is taught from kindergarten through third grade, which is considered a crucial period for lifetime reading skills.

“If we get them early on, I like to say we are putting them in intensive care, to help them become good readers and fluent readers,” Albert said. “There’s an initiative by the state department right now, literacy initiative, that we’re both on the advisory council for. So those bills, I think, are good. They’re going to cost money, but again, it’s an investment in our students and in our future, and I think that will help with student achievement.”

Albert said he would like to see bills introduced to help fourth grade through high school seniors achieve their full potential.

In a follow up online questionnaire, student behavior was listed as one of the biggest obstacles to educational achievement.

Alternative learning placements, tutoring and remediation programs along with increased time for planning and teacher collaboration were raised, as was more time teaching time, smaller class size and less paperwork requirements. Educators also said they would like to see more respect for their profession.