Education Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Bill To Hand Legislature Control Over State Board Of Education Passes Senate

Senate Bill 705 aims to give the Legislature oversight and decision-making authority over the State Board of Education .

Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said the Board of Education is political, and should be under the control of elected officials.

“We just talked about a DEI bill and talked about wokeness in our education system. If you don’t think politics is in our schools, open your eyes,” Tarr said.

Sen. Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, said the legislature already passes a lot of legislation that affects schools in the state. He pointed to five bills the legislature had passed in that same floor session that directly affected education in the state.

“I still think that the people at home don’t want us messing with education, because we’re not educators, and we don’t know exactly how to educate,” Clements said.

He said the bill focuses on the wrong things in West Virginia’s lagging educational system, and that it goes against what state voters have indicated they want.

Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, is a public school teacher and the chair of the Senate Education Health Committee. She urged a no vote as well for reasons similar to those that Clements expressed.

“I think that this sends the wrong message to our voters. I think it tells them that we think they got it wrong and we’re going to do it anyway,” Grady said.

The bill passed with a slim margin, 19 for and 15 against.

A similar bill, House Bill 2755, passed the house last week.

Policy Analyst Weighs In On State Budget

On this episode of The Legislature Today, the state budget continues to work its way through the West Virginia Legislature. We recently heard from Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Del. Clay Riley, a Harrison County Republican and vice chairman of the House Finance Committee. This time, News Director Eric Douglas sits down with Sean O’Leary, senior policy analyst at West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, to discuss the state’s budget from an analyst’s perspective.

On this episode of The Legislature Today, the state budget continues to work its way through the West Virginia Legislature. We recently heard from Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Del. Clay Riley, a Harrison County Republican and vice chairman of the House Finance Committee. This time, News Director Eric Douglas sits down with Sean O’Leary, senior policy analyst at West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, to discuss the state’s budget from an analyst’s perspective.

Also, the Senate advanced several bills Tuesday, including a bill that would allow pharmacists to prescribe medicine. Briana Heaney has more.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Monday signed House Bill 2354. It bans certain additives from schools starting in August. It also bans those same additives from being sold statewide in 2028. Briana Heaney also has this story.

And Monday afternoon, the House Education Committee discussed a bill that would change the structure of the Boards of Governors at the state’s 19 public colleges and universities.

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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.

Restructuring Of University Boards Would Reduce Role Of Staff, Students

The bill removes the voting rights of board members elected by the faculty, staff and students at all universities and recategorizes those members as “nonvoting, advisory” members.

Monday afternoon the House Education Committee discussed a bill that would change the makeup of the Boards of Governors at the state’s 19 public colleges and universities.

Del. Clay Riley, R-Harrison, is a co-sponsor of House Bill 3279. He said the bill’s primary aim is to expand the size of the boards of West Virginia University and West Virginia State University, the state’s land grant universities. The bill would also require one member of the board be a representative of the agricultural sciences.

“Land grant universities, as you know, were created by Congress to fulfill a three part mission, which is teaching, research and service,” Riley said. “Agriculture is the bedrock component of our rural economy, and forestry has long been one of the pillars of West Virginia economy, and it remains so today.”

However the bill also removes the voting rights of board members elected by the faculty, staff and students of all universities and recategorizes those members as “nonvoting, advisory” members.

Representatives from Marshall and West Virginia State University spoke against the action, citing the importance of shared governance in institutions of higher learning. Travis Mollohan, associate vice president of government relations at WVU, said it was critical the voices of faculty, staff and students be heard when making decisions for the institution.

“Shared governance is a standard in higher education, and so we believe that denying those four members the ability to vote and to have buy-in is counter to higher education principles,” he said.

A university board of governors is responsible for establishing policy and choosing a president. Several delegates argued that many other leadership structures do not allow members to choose leadership.

“The employees don’t choose a CEO, and you have a board of governors who their role is to appoint the CEO,” Riley said.

Tuesday the House Education committee voted 15 to 9 to advance the bill to the full House.

The committee also advanced House Bill 3446, which would make submission of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) a graduation requirement for high schoolers.

‘Classical Western History’ And Civics Center At WVU Gets House Approval

West Virginia University could be required to create a new center for “disseminating knowledge about classical western history” if a piece of legislation finds traction in the West Virginia Senate.

House Bill 3297 would establish an “independent” Washington Center for Civics, Culture and Statesmanship at West Virginia’s flagship university, led by an “expert on the western tradition” appointed as director by the governor.

On Friday, the bill passed the West Virginia House of Delegates by a vote of 86 to 10, with four members absent.

The bill’s lead sponsor is Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock. On the House floor Friday, McGeehan said the bill was “modeled after” similar state-endorsed centers at the Ohio State University, the University of Florida, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other institutions of higher education.

“This piece of legislation is nothing abnormal,” McGeehan said, arguing that the establishment of these centers also helped “attract very talented professors” and expand educational opportunities for students.

Under the bill, the center would focus on curricular areas like “American constitutional studies” — including the “great debates of western civilization” — plus “political philosophy, constitutional governance, economic thought, western history and culture, per the bill’s text.

But some Democratic lawmakers expressed concern that the bill would impose on the university and bypass its internal procedures for developing new centers.

Del. John Williams, D-Monongalia, said he was particularly concerned about the bill because it does not allocate funding to the center or its administration. In 2023, WVU experienced a $45 million budget shortfall that resulted in the closure of dozens of academic majors and the elimination of hundreds of faculty positions.

“The school that had some budget shortfalls a couple years ago, we’re going to mandate to them that they start a new, essentially, college at their school without supplying funding,” Williams said.

Williams argued the subject matter of the proposed center is already covered by current WVU course offerings, and expressed concern about the creation of a “cushy” director position overseen by the governor.

“Is anyone asking for this school to be created?” Williams asked. “Or are prospective students saying, ‘Hey, I’d love for this to be created?’”

McGeehan disputed that the bill would function as a mandate to the university. He also said it would create a framework for the center, to which lawmakers could allocate funds in the future.

With support from a majority of the members of the House, the bill will now be sent to the state Senate for further consideration. If the Senate passes the bill, the House will have one more opportunity to review its contents before it gets sent to the governor’s desk to be considered for law.

House Approves Bill To Give Legislature Authority Over Public Schools

The House of Delegates passed a bill that would hand over policy and rule-making authority over public schools in West Virginia to the legislature.

Currently the state Board of Education is made up of nine members, all of whom are appointed by the governor. If there isn’t existing legislation on a rule or policy for public schools, then the state board has the ability to step in and make those rules and policies with the help of the state Department of Education.

In 2022 a constitutional amendment to give the legislature ultimate rule-making power over schools, much like this bill, was on the ballot. Voters rejected the amendment.

Del. Mike Puskin, D-Kanawha, opposed the bill. He said it would go against the will of the people.

“The clear will of the voters in ’22 rejected this question and we say, ‘we don’t care what you think we’re going to, we’re going to pass it’,” Pushkin said.

Del. Michael Hornby, R-Berkeley, is the lead sponsor of the bill. He argued that the ballot was skewed by politics of the time.

“It was on the ballot, but there were political things happening with our previous governor that affected the passage of this bill,” Hornby said. “My county overwhelmingly understood and voted for it.”

Pushkin said the law is also in violation of state Supreme Court precedent. Hornby agreed, but said this law could lead to a re-evaluation of that precedent if it were to go to a higher court.

“I think the Supreme Court has gotten decisions wrong before, so I’d like to revisit this,” Hornby said.

The bill passed 84-12. It now heads to the Senate for consideration.

MU Rolls Out DEI Changes

Organizational changes at Marshall University, prompted by state and federal orders to repeal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, are being met with mixed reviews from students.

State and federal orders to repeal diversity, equity and inclusion programs have spurred organizational changes at Marshall University. The changes are being met with mixed reviews from students.

Among the Marshall students enjoying a warm spring-like day on campus, Logan County Senior Emma Johnson has just finished giving prospective freshmen a campus tour. Johnson said she recently got two directives from the university on how to discuss DEI.

“We were kind of told that from now on, with the removal of DEI, that we would have to reword how we say something,” Johnson said. “So, we’d have to avoid the “woke” words that are now part of the dictionary that we can’t use in any capacity.”

Johnson is referring in part to changes at the East Hall Center for Student Success, home of the campus Intercultural Center.

In an email last week, Marshall student, faculty and staff were told:

Office Name Changes

The Division of Intercultural and Student Affairs will be renamed the Division of Student Affairs.
The Women’s and Gender Center will be renamed the Women’s Center.
The Center for African American Studies, LGBTQ+ Office and International Student Office in East Hall will merge into a single entity: the Access, Connections, and Engagement (ACE) Center.

Tyler County sophomore Gray Howell called the DEI relabeling a complete waste of time.

“There’s so many other more important things that the university could be focusing on,” Howell said. “I know that they can’t really control it, but there are other things our state and our federal government should be focusing on instead of just the language that’s used in certain programs. I understand that they’ll still be assisting people like LGBTQ students, gay students, like everyone, women will still be supported everywhere.”

Beckley senior Isaiah Valentine said he believes the changes will be good for the campus community.

“Instead of being sectioned off, I feel like everybody would be a family,” Valentine said. “You don’t really have to worry about this group versus this group. Everybody would be together. It’s a good thing.”

After discussions with faculty, staff, students and administrators, Marshall Communications DIrector Leah Payne said the school reversed its decision and determined that the removal of Safe Space stickers from office doors would not be required.

Aidan Presley, an MU student from Princeton, said he understands the DEI changes relate to the taxpayer funds that help support Marshall.

“Some people,” Presley said, “Especially the governor of West Virginia and the President, feel like people’s taxpayer dollars should only be funded towards things they support, but not some of these LGBTQ and gender-type studies. I support the changes. If they want to do it as a private thing with their own money, absolutely, that’s their choice, and that’s fine.”

Gray Howell said she had a different take on state funding and DEI executive orders.

“It’s all state funded,” Howell said. “It’s really anti -education. It’s anti diversity, and I know that they’re trying to make it seem like DEI is like segregating people based off of you know who they are and what they align with, but that’s really so far from the truth.”

Campus tour guide Emma Johnson said the rebranding made her use of terminology a little easier, but questionable.

“I think it’s just a little stupid to be honest,” Johnson said. “Especially with the ‘woke’ words. I know that diversity and belonging are there, and I feel like those are some words that can be used to describe a college campus in general.”

In the email to Marshall students and faculty, it was noted that the new ACE center will serve all students, including a list of first-generation students, low-income students, transfer and commuter students, international students and “non-traditional students,” defined as working adults, single parents, or veterans. Marshall administrators said in the email that its mission remains the same, to foster a welcoming and supportive environment for all students.