Lawmakers Work To Get Education Bills Out Of Committee Before Deadline

As the deadline to read a bill for the first time on both chamber floors Thursday looms, committees on both sides are doing their final work of the legislative session. That includes a number of education-related bills.

Monday afternoon the House Education Committee took up Senate Bill 89, which would facilitate the creation of alternative charter schools for high-risk students. Supporters of the bill say such schools could serve as the alternative education settings proposed in student discipline bills in recent years.

But lawmakers in committee expressed concern that alternative schools could become a separate educational system for the state’s most vulnerable students.

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said he was in favor of the bill but did express one main concern.

“If somebody wanted to do it, they could do it right now,” he said. “But I also see how difficult it would be to run a school like that. And one thing that I worry about is that we’re moving towards creating some sort of separate school system for other kids. That concerns me.”

Del. Anitra Hamilton, D-Monongalia, echoed Pushkin’s concerns.

After another lawmaker expressed support for the concept and invoked a defunct state reformatory for boys, Hamilton said that without great care, such schools could become pipelines to prison for already troubled students.

“I’m concerned about the type of education they will have, the type of support that they have, if this school was set up properly, that they would get the type of support that they have to be successful,” she said. “I think that it will work. But comparing it to Pruntytown worries me. I don’t want it to become a military or a police driven type of school, but that it become a school where our kids get the same level of education, and that we’ll be able to retain teachers there, and they’ll just get the type of support through counselors that they need. So I do have a lot of concerns with this school.”

The bill that would facilitate the creation of charter schools for high-risk students was advanced, but now goes to the House Finance Committee.

Senate Education

Tuesday morning the Senate Education Committee held its final meeting of the 2025 regular legislative session.

A longstanding debate about the non-instructional burden required of teachers in code was reignited by House Bill 2143. The bill would make certification in the science of reading a requirement for elementary school teachers, but leaves certification optional for charter school teachers.  

The state Department of Education is already offering a voluntary science of reading training.

Jim Brown, executive director for the West Virginia School Board Association, told the committee that he supports the bill’s intent but has strong concerns about its implementation as a requirement.

“The problem is our hands are tied with a lot of regulation,” Brown said. “Throughout this session, the last two years, I’ve watched a lot of things that have run away, especially around school choice initiatives. This is an example where public law, school law, really kind of limits some of the authority or latitude The public schools have in accomplishing what we need to occur in our classrooms.”

The bill to require teacher certification in the science of reading was advanced to the full Senate.

The committee also took up House Bill 3422 which would require the State Board of Education to create an internet-based School Choice Portal where paperwork required by law for homeschooled students can be submitted electronically.

Deputy State Superintendent Sonya White told the committee that it was estimated the cost for the initial startup of the portal would be $873,000 the first year, and then $780,000 annually afterwards.

“It’d be $83,000 just to build the portal, and then we would probably need four personnel to manage the portal, because you’re talking about a group of students the size of Kanawha County,” White said. “Then the communication back and forth with the counties to make sure that they have the information they need, that the parents have contact at the department.”

The bill to create a school choice portal was advanced with a reference to the Senate Finance Committee.

The committee ended their meeting by advancing House Concurrent Resolution 96 which urges West Virginia members of Congress to ask the President not to cut funding for the local food for schools and child care program.