Education Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State Politicians Voice Support For Harrison County Student Athletes Protesting Inclusion Of Transgender Student

Multiple West Virginia politicians have voiced their support of student athletes protesting a transgender student’s inclusion in a track and field event.

Five students forfeited a shot-put competition on April 18 at the 2024 Harrison County Middle School Championships track and field meet in protest of a Fourth Circuit decision that House Bill 3293 violated Title IX protections for gender equality in school sports.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said last week that he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider BPJ vs. West Virginia State Board of Education.

Parents for four of the students have since filed suit against the Harrison County Board of Education in Harrison County Circuit Court after the students were not permitted to compete in a scheduled track and field meet on April 27.

The West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission (WVSSAC) rule book states in its section on sportsmanship that teams, coaches and attendants are required “to remain in or a part of a contest until its normal end as provided by the National Federation Rules of that particular sport.” Failure to do so, it goes on, “will not only involve ejection during that particular contest but shall also involve that student, coach or team attendant not being a part of that school’s team for the next regularly scheduled contest(s) or post season progression in a playoff tournament, as regulated in §127-4-3.7.3.”

Tuesday evening, Morrisey released a statement in support of the students, highlighting a brief he filed in favor of their suit.

“The only thing this decision does is teach these children to keep their mouths shut and not disagree with what they saw as unfairness,” he said. “That is outrageous and it tramples these students’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.”

Morrisey’s amicus brief argues that “the Code of State Rules’ provisions for handling a protest action do not justify the Defendants’ actions here, and the Free Speech implications of the school’s actions are deeply concerning.”

Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, also released a statement condemning Harrison County Schools’ actions on behalf of the Senate Majority Caucus.

“Despite that procedure being clearly defined in the Code of State Rules, Harrison County Schools unilaterally decided to punish these female students by prohibiting them from competing in their next track meet,” the statement reads. “By refusing to adhere to these standards, Harrison County Schools is showing a galling lack of concern for the free-speech considerations of those students, as well as the safety of those students, because of unfair competition with males.”

Congressman Alex Mooney also released a statement regarding the “attack on women’s sports in Harrison County.”

“It is completely outrageous for a school board and coaches to punish girls for standing up for women’s sports. Young women should not be forced to compete against young men. It is asinine and unbelievable that a school in West Virginia, not California, would adopt this woke nonsense,” Mooney said.

Attorney General Race And A Conversation With Poet, Professor Sara Henning, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, according to state code, the attorney general’s job is to enforce West Virginia’s laws as they relate to – listed in order – consumer protection, unfair trade practices, civil rights and other important areas. As Randy Yohe shows us, the four primary candidates running for attorney general, two Republicans and two Democrats, have diverse views on the overall mission of the office.

On this West Virginia Morning, according to state code, the attorney general’s job is to enforce West Virginia’s laws as they relate to – listed in order – consumer protection, unfair trade practices, civil rights and other important areas. As Randy Yohe shows us, the four primary candidates running for attorney general, two Republicans and two Democrats, have diverse views on the overall mission of the office.

Also, in this show, Marshall University professor Sara Henning draws on personal history, taking some of the rough edges and smoothing them into art. Her latest book of poetry, Burn, was released earlier this month. Bill Lynch spoke with Henning about some of her background and what drew her to poetry.

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 Shepherd University.

Chris Schulz produced this episode.

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

WVU Researchers Aim To Convert Mine Water Pollutants Into Industrial Materials

West Virginia University researchers are extracting minerals from toxic mine water runoff and converting it into industry materials, with the help of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Coal mining can expose minerals like pyrite to oxygen from rainwater and the air. In turn, this pyrite creates sulfuric acid — a toxin to aquatic wildlife that frequently enters water runoff.

But new research at West Virginia University (WVU) aims to remove harmful minerals from acid mine drainage, and repurpose them into usable industrial materials.

Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of WVU’s Water Research Institute, began working on the project in 2016. His team has already developed technology to extract minerals like pyrite from local water supplies, effectively ridding it of mine pollutants.

“You have to treat the acid mine drainage… [in] a treatment plant or facility,” he said. “We have a process that basically is a way of treating acid mine drainage while recovering valuable minerals and cleaning up the environment at the same time.”

Ziemkiewicz said that his team helps operate a plant near Grant County that treats from 500 to 1,000 gallons of acid mine drainage per minute. According to Ziemkiewicz, facilities like these help proactively treat drainage before it enters a body of water.

Minerals extracted from this drainage can be repurposed for industrial benefits, which brings additional value to the extraction process, he said.

An additional $5 million in funding secured this week from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) will help the team embark upon part two of the project: converting extracted minerals into industrial materials.

Ziemkiewicz said his team secured the funding after responding to a DOE project solicitation sent out nationally. The group has received funding from the DOE roughly 10 times, he said.

“What we’re doing now is taking that concentrate and developing new processes that are very environmentally friendly, and that will take those mixtures of rare earth and other metals and separate those into individual, usable components,” Ziemkiewicz said.

Rare earth elements are used in a variety of goods ranging from cell phones to alternative energy technology, he said. Many of these elements are primarily imported from China, but Ziemkiewicz said projects like his own could develop methods of obtaining them domestically.

Additionally, state law grants individuals or groups who treat acid mine drainage rights to the usage of extracted materials. This means treatment plants can sell the materials they extract and use them to finance operations, Ziemkiewicz said.

Beyond sustaining environmental upsides, Ziemkiewicz said that the prospect of self-funded treatment plants would also stand to create jobs for coalfield communities devastated by the decline of the mining industry.

“Being able to bring in an industry that cleans up the previously polluted water while creating economic opportunities through the extraction of the rare earth is creating wealth for these communities,” he said. “It creates wealth where previously you had basically environmental degradation.”

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.

State Pre-K Program Continues To Rank High Nationally

West Virginia once again scored well in the latest State of Pre-K report from the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.

West Virginia once again scored well in the latest State of Pre-K report from the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. The institute, known as NIEER, has been advocating for universal pre-K and grading each state’s existing program for 20 years.

West Virginia moved from 6th to 4th in the nation for preschool enrollment for 4-year-olds, serving 67 percent of this age group in the state, nearly double the national enrollment.

Steven Barnett, founder and senior co-director of NIERR, said enrollment is up nationwide.

“In nearly every state, enrollment was also up over the previous year,” he said. “‘Enrollment increased by 7 percent year over year. The percentage of 4-year-olds is 35 percent, 3-year-olds – 7 percent enrolled. In terms of the percentage served, these are new records.”

The state’s 3-year-old enrollment matched the national average, at 7 percent and brought the year’s total enrollment to 13,731.

“West Virginia continues to be a leader in early childhood education, creating foundational learning opportunities for our most precious resources,” said Michele Blatt, state superintendent of schools. “Early learning has a vast impact on the growth and development of our children and the future of the Mountain State. Access to pre-K education provides families and students an introduction to lifelong learning.”

The state’s program once again met nine out of 10 NIERR benchmark standards criteria, which include student to teacher ratios, teacher specialized training and maximum class sizes. The only missed benchmark for West Virginia is staff professional development for teachers and assistants.

Allison Friedman-Krauss, assistant research professor at NIEER, said training and support is more important than ever amidst a growing teacher shortage.

“We’ve seen again this year, widespread reports of teacher shortages,” she said. “To date, the most frequent response to teacher shortages has been to allow less qualified teachers in the classroom.”

State spending on pre-K increased by $4 million, and per child spending equaled $7,053 in 2022-2023, a slight increase from the previous year.

W.Va. Peer Recovery Support Specialist Wins National Award

A peer recovery support specialist at a Marshall-based recovery program has won the Cornerstone Award.

The award honors an individual or organization that has gone above and beyond to support students in recovery.

Aaron Blankenship is a West Virginia Collegiate Recovery Network (WVCRN) team member and recovery support specialist at Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College.

“Through his unwavering dedication and tireless efforts, Aaron Blankenship exemplifies the essence of the ARHE Cornerstone Award for Student Support,” said Dr. Pamela Alderman, president of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College. “His commitment to going above and beyond in supporting students in recovery transforms lives and serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration for our community. We celebrate Aaron’s profound impact and recognize him as a cornerstone of support for those navigating the recovery journey.”

The WVCRN is housed within the Marshall University Research Corporation with support from the Marshall University Center of Excellence for Recovery.

Blankenship will accept his award at the National Collegiate Recovery Conference in San Diego, California this summer.

According to one of his peers, Hattie Newsome, student success coordinator for Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, Blankenship’s own recovery gave him the empathy and drive to work passionately with students and the recovery community.

“He inspires those in recovery by showing them they can achieve sobriety, goals and their dreams can come true,” she said.